Chinese scientists' successful involvement in the global Human Genome Project (HGP) has prompted enthusiasm at home for this type of research, according to a Chinese researcher.

Professor Yang Huanming, director of the HGP Center under the Genetics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), expressed his gratitude here today to the Leqing city government in east China's Zhejiang Province, which provided eight million yuan (about one million U.S. dollars) in loans to the center to aid their HGP research.

Only with the loan and broad support from society were Chinese scientists able to complete their mission in the global effort to decode the genome, said Yang, chief scientist of the HGP in China.

In the just-revealed first rough map of the HGP, Chinese scientists completed one percent of the sequencing of the human genome, but the significance of that one percent was great, Yang pointed out.

Meanwhile, Shunyi County, north of Beijing, where the HGP center is located, has provided the center with 3,800 sq m of land near the Capital International Airport for free use for two years.

Scientists at a meeting here today suggested that more local governments and entities be encouraged to back key scientific research projects.

(China Internet Information Center)