SSBC broadcasting facility. (Photo: Awan Moses).

The Chinese Embassy in Juba has handed over the state-of-the-art building and studios of South Sudan Broadcasting Cooperation (SSBC) to the South Sudan government.

The construction started in 2018 after Juba and Beijing signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build studios and a broadcast tower for SSBC.

Speaking during the technical handover ceremony in Juba on Tuesday, China Ambassador MA Qiang described the project as another new milestone in the bilateral ties between the two countries.

The SSBC broadcasting facility includes a new television studio, production studio, new transmitter and 100-centimeter heigh self-supporting tower.

Ambassador Qiang said the government will provide technical training sessions to the SSBC Technicians and Engineers Staff on the equipment.

“The project is another new milestone in the friendship between China and of South Sudan,” he told the media.

“Additionally, we will provide SSBC with all supporting equipment and a series of sessions of training and technical service so that the technicians and engineers of SSBC can manage and upgrade the new facility on their own.”

Speaking after the handover, National Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth says, the broadcast facilities will enable the government to extend services to the people of South Sudan.

“We will be witnessing real progress in this particular field, the field of broadcasting,” Makuei said.

“This is where we need to tell the world that with the help of our Friend Chinese, we are now moving forward and will be in position to catch up with the world.”

“Soon I say this because up to now, the SSBC is only visible in the satellite so all these facilities that have been operating all these times are only to the people in Juba and the diaspora for those lucky ones who have the satellite but with this building we will be in position to progress and extend our services to the people of South Sudan.”

SSBC Managing Director James Magoc Chilim said the new building will help the management reorganized the staffing.

“This technical handing over of this studio is to allow the engineers and technicians within SSBC to be trained by Chinese experts on the installed equipment studios management and transmission process before final inauguration.”

“It will help SSBC to make a technical comfortability in term of connection for smooth transmission and for the studio to be align with the modern equipment that have been installed in this current building and what we are already using.”

“We have to do a connection this technical hand over will make South Sudan Broadcasting cooperation to understand the general management and consumption of the building in terms of power and staffing what type of staffing do we need to run it.”