"The launching of the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft at the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) will have a far-reaching impact upon China's macro-economy as well as the next Five-Year Plan," Professor Han Liyan of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was quoted by the Economic Information Daily as saying.

Xu Dazhe, deputy general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., which developed Shenzhou-6, revealed that the launching of Shenzhou-6 cost 900 million yuan (approximately 110 million US dollars), solely provided by the government.

"It will bring tremendous economic benefits to the country," he said.

Han Liyan estimated that China's aerospace project has involved a chain of industries worth 120 billion yuan (14.8 billion US dollars).

The Shenzhou-6 project and the aeronautic industry will boost the national economy both in the long run and short term, he said.

Inaugurated in 1992, China's manned space program is solely dependent on its own technology, involving hundreds of up and down-stream enterprises and research institutions and thousands of cooperative working units in the country, Vice Minister Ma Songde of Science and Technology was quoted by the Economic Information Daily newspaper as saying.

The manned space program will stimulate the rapid development of new materials, telecommunications and the biological industry, he said.

According to international practice, the one-dollar investment in the aerospace program will bring about an 8 to 14-dollar benefit to the whole society, the newspaper said.

During the first ten years of this century, 650 to 800 billion US dollars of investment are expected to flow into the global aerospace industry. By 2020, the output of the US space industry will account for 10 to 15 percent of its GDP, according to the newspaper.

On the day when Shenzhou-6 was launched, the advertisement price on China Central Television (CCTV) was around 2 million yuan (246,610 US dollars) per five seconds, the newspaper said.

The successful space tour has lifted up the share prices of three companies, namely Astronautic Machinery and Electronics, Astronautic Science and Technology and Astronautic Power, by over 10 percent in one week, when most other shares listed in Chinese stock markets remained stable.

The United States created 2 trillion US dollars of profit through the industrialization of space technology, and the revenue of the French space industry is close to 20 billion euros annually, Zhang Qingwei, general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., told the newspaper.

China is speeding up its industrialization process of space technology. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. expects its total assets to hit 100 billion yuan (12 billion US dollars) by the end of 2005 and total revenue to hit 100 billion yuan by 2010.

Although it is still hard to calculate the exact profit and revenue brought by the space program, it is true that ordinary people's lives are connected with aerospace technology, said Xu Dazhe.

"The successful of Shenzhou-6 is of great significance for elevating China's prestige in the world, promoting China's economic, scientific and national defense capabilities and consolidating the national cohesiveness," Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo said at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center in a congratulatory message.

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