Government paid RM39m for Angkasawan

THE Government paid RM39.11mil for the first phase of the Angkasawan programme for the cost of mission and supporting services, said Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili.

Of the amount, the ministry bore RM16.8mil and government-linked agencies contributed RM22.28mil.

He explained that the cost was meant for supporting services such as the initial process of selection of the Angkasawan, training, logistics, research costs and publicity.

However, Dr Maximus stressed that the Russian Government funded RM75.8mil, which was part of the offset agreement when Malaysia bought 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKM fighter jets costing RM3.42bil.

“Therefore, it is wrong to assume that we have used hundreds of millions from the people’s money for the project,” he said while replying a supplementary question by Ibrahim Ali (Independent-Pasir Mas).

Replying to a question from Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan), he said the second phase of the space programme depended on the availability of funds.

Earlier, when replying to Datuk Mohd Nasir Ibrahim Fikri (BN-Kuala Nerus) and Datuk Ismail Abd Mutalib (BN-Maran), Dr Maximus said there were several factors being considered for the second phase.

“Among them are that it should have an economical impact, a proposed cooperation with international agencies such as Roscosmos (Russia) or Nasa (United States) or a coalition with agencies such as European Space Agency or Japan Exploration Space Agency,” Dr Maximus said.

He also added that the ministry was conducting a cost-benefit analysis on the space programme.

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