Visiting Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Tabachnik expressed congratulations on China's successful launch of its first manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou-5, in Beijing Wednesday.

The spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

"This marks a great success of the Chinese scientific and technological expertise and today should be a grand event for all Chinese people," said Tabachnik.

He believed the successful launch of the Shenzhou-5 would usher in broad prospects for bilateral cooperation in the spaceflight sector, expressing the hope such cooperation would be reinforced in the future.

Tabachnik has just attended the eighth meeting of the Sino-Ukraine economic and trade cooperation committee in Beijing and will fly to Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong, to attend a Ukraine scientific and technological week.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2003)