Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Edmund Ho Hau Wah, on behalf of the people in Macao, congratulated Thursday the motherland on the successful launch and retrieval of Shenzhou V spaceship.

"The good tiding that came just a few days after the celebration of China's 54th founding anniversary represented a realization of a long-cherished dream of the nation," he said in his congratulation letter sent to the central government, the State Council.

He said that the breakthrough made in the country's outer space technology is of historic and strategic significance, and embodies an incessant advance of the nation's comprehensive strengthen, which will contribute and give a strong impetus to the efforts for economic development, scientific advancement and the improvement of the national security.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2003)