HAIKOU, February 27. /TASS/. Hainan authorities resume construction of the aerospace town in the island's north-east following receding coronavirus fears, according to Wenchang city authorities.
"It is necessary to take every effort to promote the construction of the international aerospace town, to boost Wenchang's development even more", the party committee wrote on WeChat social network.
The statement says that the city administration will continue to fight coronavirus while at the same time trying to revitalize the economy. In addition to space industry, the authorities intend to cultivate agriculture, tackle poverty, draw new enterprises manufacturing highly processed goods to the region.
"We need to increase the level of political awareness, to change the work style, to do our utmost to improve the economic situation", said Zhong Minmin, secretary of Wenchang party committee. "We must implement the thirteenth five-year plan (2016-2020) which is aimed at creating middle class in the country, promoting new image of the aerospace town in Wenchang".
China is actively developing its space program, working on meteorology, telecommunications and satellites, as well as technologies for Moon observation. The Chinese scientists are also implementing a project on asteroid and Mars research.
The creation of the main infrastructure of the Wenchang cosmodrome was completed in 2014. The proximity of the space facility to the equator facilitates heavy rocket launches. According to the Chinese space program, it will be used to launch the modules of the Chinese space station and in Moon exploration. In July 2018, Hainan Governor Shen Xiaoming said in an interview with TASS that the local authorities were ready to set up a specialized Russian-Chinese center for those purposes in the province.
Coronavirus outbreak
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 11 million, in late December. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency, characterizing it as an epidemic with multiple foci.
Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported in 38 other countries, including Russia. According to the latest update, the number of confirmed cases of the disease has exceeded 81,400, with 2,771 people killed by this coronavirus. More than 30,300 have recovered. According to official statistics, 168 coronavirus cases were registered on Hainan.