The Department of Science and Technology will contribute R2-million towards a pool of funds to support researchers from South Africa and Sudan on joint research initiatives in both countries.
This was announced this morning by the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, at a meeting in Pretoria with her Sudanese counterpart, Dr Tahani Abdalla Attia.

Dr Attia says the Sudanese Government will contribute a sum of $200 000 to the joint fund.

The Sudanese Minister of Science and Communication is in South Africa for a week-long visit at the invitation of Minister Pandor.

In November 2014, the two ministers signed a science and technology agreement in Khartoum, Sudan, on behalf of their countries. The agreement sets out key priority areas of collaboration between the two countries.

In terms of the agreement: “The Parties shall cooperate to develop and deepen their scientific and technological relations in equal partnership and to the mutual benefit of their respective scientific, technological and innovation systems.”

The objectives of the agreement include promoting information and knowledge sharing about policies relating to research, technological development and innovation; promoting the development of joint scientific and technological solutions in support of the parties’ developmental agendas; and promoting the emergence of scientific and technological research involving the two countries’ industrial communities in support of creating knowledge economies for mutual benefit.

Minister Pandor said she was excited to have Dr Attia visiting South Africa. “We invited the Minister to visit South Africa so that she could gain a first-hand understanding of the research-performing institutions in South Africa and use that understanding to identify institutions that scientists and technologist in Sudan would want to work with.”

“I am extremely pleased that Dr Attia has come to our country, both to continue our deliberations and to expedite the implementation of the agreement signed in Khartoum,” Minister Pandor adds.

Dr Attia echoed Minister Pandor’s words, saying she was very pleased to be in South Africa to activate the agreement, and that she and Minister Pandor had agreed to a number of areas that would be of mutual benefit to both countries.

“We are now ready to move and implement the agreement we signed in 2014,” concluded Dr Attia.