OBNINSK, June 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s nuclear power corporation Rosatom hopes an inter-governmental agreement will be signed with South Africa on building a nuclear power plant in that country by the end of this year. Rusatom Overseas CEO Dzhomart Aliyev told this a media conference dubbed ‘NPP: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ currently underway in the city of Obninsk (Kaluga Region, Russia).

“South Africa has been through a political cycle; we are expecting that the package of documents submitted to the South African side in January will be considered soon,” he said. “The package consists of an inter-governmental agreements and a portfolio of contacts. We hope that the agreement will be signed. The document has been checked and verified.”

Asked by reporters regarding the date when that might happen, Aliyev said he hoped it would take place by the end of this year.

Earlier, Rosatom chief Sergey Kiriyenko told journalists the corporation was prepared to resume talks over Russia’s participation in South Africa’s nuclear program after the presidential election.

At the end of 2013, Rosatom came close to clinching a $50-billion deal the South African authorities for building eight 1.2-gigawatt reactors. Originally, the signing was scheduled for the middle of February this year.

Today, South Africa has only one nuclear power plant— Koeberg. Under the government’s energy industry development program designed until 2030, the share of NPPs in electricity generation should go up from 5% to 25%.