The Director General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre of Dubaï, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mr Salem Humaid AlMarri, accompanied by a delegation, and the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Darsanand Balgobin, paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, this afternoon, at the New Treasury Building, in Port Louis.

The delegation is currently on a visit to Mauritius which is organised by the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation in collaboration with the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC).

In a statement after the meeting, the Director General highlighted that discussions focused on the importance of space for the development of the economy and the people, as well as for education and for inspiring the youth.

Furthermore, he observed that today, space technology is used everywhere on a daily basis, knowingly or unknowingly. "Space technology is also a source of inspiration, in particular when you see an astronaut in space or hear of a mission to Mars, as it inspires us as people to explore and to look at the unknown," stated Mr AlMarri.

The Director General remarked that both countries will now have a very strong connection as regards space technology. "We look forward to launching joint missions together where our institute will bring equipment from Mauritius and launch it into space as well as organise joint training exercises that will make us both grow as countries in terms of exploiting and utilising space," he pointed out.

Speaking of future ventures, Mr AlMarri underlined that discussions pertained to the building of satellites together adding that in this context, their institute will train Mauritian engineers on satellite systems engineering. "We will bring the Mauritian engineers to Dubaï in the UAE, let them work on our projects, enable them to gather experience, and then we can jointly launch those satellites into space," he said.