L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

Mi-17 helicopters has also being worked on. It is proposed to be a
regional center to service sub-Saharan countries.
Good prospects for cooperation in space are opening up for the
two countries. Nonetheless, not all plans have been implemented
due specifically to the rather long delay in launching South Africa's
Sumbandila satellite. It was initially assumed that the satellite
would be launched using a converted Shtil submarine-launched
booster rocket as early as 2007. The satellite was finally launched
on September 17 from the Baikonur space complex together with a
Russian Meteor-M satellite. A Soyuz-2 booster was used for the
launch.
It was initially assumed that, should the launch take place on
schedule, Russia would be able to deploy its tracking station in
South Africa – the first in the southern hemisphere. Since the schedule
was disrupted, it was not possible to carry out the plans to deploy
the tracking station.
The main thing now is timely assistance to South Africa in
achieving its ambition to become a regional center of space technology.
The cooperation in the sphere of technological modernization
and innovation is a two-way road. Moscow is interested in adopting
some of the South African technologies, which are either absent in
Russia or may improve the existing capabilities.
South Africa’s recent joining of the BRIC club may open ways
for multilateral technological cooperation in a number of areas, one of
them being production of liquid fuels from coal. South Africa is one
of the world leaders in this area. Russia possesses its own technology
different from that of South Africa, though the initial starting point,
German conceptual research in the area in the 1930s, is the same.
Some experts forecast that coal might regain its importance as a
key fuel across the world in the next decades if there is a new technology
that guarantees its cost effectiveness and environment friendliness.
At present, China, the U.S. and South Africa produce liquefied
coal. Russia is also involved in this competition and has
achieved world-class results. For one, “Kompomash-TEK” Company
has developed a technology and machinery to produce a water-
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