Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Argentina's high-technology company INVAP engaged in the design, construction and delivery of complex equipment, plants and devices has offered Azerbaijan cooperation in the space industry.

An INVAP delegation started its visit to Azerbaijan earlier in February to explore opportunities for cooperation in this field.

The delegation included INVAP's Chief Executive Officer Hector Otheguy, Government and Aerospace Project Deputy Manager at INVAP, Marcelo Basigalup, and Deputy Manager of Nuclear Projects Juan Pablo Ordonez.

As part of the visit, Ordonez met with Azerbaijani space agency Azercosmos' officials and was acquainted with services and solutions in the space industry.

Ordonez expressed readiness to cooperate with Azercosmos in the sphere of space industry, personal training and joint implementation of projects.

This year Azerbaijan launched its first Azerspace satellite, while the launching of two more satellites is expected in 2014 and 2016.

Azerspace is managed by specialists of Azercosmos, the Caucasus premier satellite operator, from the main control center near Baku, while an additional control center is located in Nakhchivan, 450 km west of the capital city.

The Argentinean delegation also held a meeting at the Information Technology Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences with an aim to build cooperation and consider implementation of joint projects.

Speaking at the meeting, Ordonez said space technologies allow to get topical and objective information about the region's natural resources, economic and environmental situation, etc.

He noted that INVAP employs three Nobel Prize winners, and 88 percent of its staff are engineers and scientists. According to him, the company is interested in the implementation of projects jointly with Azerbaijan.

In turn, Director of the Information Technology Institute Rasim Aliguliyev said that sustainable development of space technologies and telecommunications is a priority for the country. He pointed out that information technologies are widely used in the nuclear and space industry.

Aliguliyev spoke of the Institute's projects on the development of cloud technologies, information security, data mining, web-technology, and program engineering.

The INVAP delegation's meetings held at the Science Development Foundation (SDF) under the President of Azerbaijan also mulled cooperation issues. The INVAP officials familiarized themselves with the activities of the Foundation.

Basigalup said at the meeting that INVAP, which is the only company from Latin America to hold NASA's certificate on aerospace technologies, enjoys cooperation with clients from more than 30 countries across the world.

In turn, SDF's Executive Director Elchin Babayev stressed that cooperation with INVAP could make a contribution to the development of science in Azerbaijan.

Babayev pointed out that cooperation with INVAP could also positively affect strengthening of the Azerbaijani-Argentinean relations.

INVAP's mission is to develop state-of-the-art technology in different industrial, scientific and applied research fields, thus creating technological packages with high added value, to meet domestic requirements or to be exported to international markets. Its main activities are focused in areas including Nuclear, Aerospace, Defense and Industrial and Medical Equipment.

INVAP has designed and built several research and radioisotope production reactors worldwide, low orbit Earth observation satellites, industrial plants, radar systems and radiotherapy centers, etc.