DAMMAM: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) have signed a five-year agreement to boost bilateral cooperation through the exchange of expertise in education, training and scientific research.
The agreement also stipulates cooperation in conducting studies, preparing joint projects and exchanging data. KFUPM Rector Khaled Al-Sultan and GACA President Abdullah Rihaimy signed the agreement here recently. The two parties will, under the agreement, cooperate in concluding contracts for various future projects.
GACA’s Aviation Engineering and Space Section Director Ahmed Al-Qarni said the agreement defined the broad lines for bilateral cooperation in many areas, in addition to the signing of future contracts and the exchange of scientific expertise, research and patent rights.
He said the agreement would reinforce communications between government sectors, the university and educational institutions.
“The agreement is in compliance with the pressing need for institutional cooperation to keep pace with the great development in various fields, especially aviation,” he added.
Al-Qarni, who is coordinating the agreement, said the region’s aviation sector had grown by 8.9 percent. “This is many times more than the development of the sector worldwide, which is no more than 1.8 percent,” he added.
Meanwhile, the research institute of the university has signed two contracts with the Saudi Electricity Company worth SR5.2 million to conduct two research projects: one concerning the protection of Al-Qurayat power station from the entry of starfish and the other concerning the possibility of generating captured energy.
