Pretoria - South Africa and Kazakhstan are set to strengthen bilateral relations when International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim hosts Kazakhstan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Sarybay, today.
Sarybay is in South Africa on a one-day working visit.
South Africa and Kazakhstan have substantial economic interests, which overlap in several important areas such as trade, production and collaborative marketing of strategic minerals, technology exchange, machine production, as well as oil procurement for South Africa.
In September 2009, the R26 million SumbandilaSat was launched in Kazakhstan. The low-orbit satellite was commissioned by South Africa's Department of Science and Technology and implemented by Stellenbosch University's engineering faculty.
It formed part of an integrated national space programme, developed by government to provide the country with affordable access to space technology and data. The satellite was expected to orbit about 500 km to 600 km above the earth, carrying high resolution cameras to produce images of the earth.
