State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Deputy Director Ma Jianzhong said Thursday that Macau should play a more important role in the modernisation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and integrate TCM into its medical system.
Ma made the comments Thursday when delivering a speech at the opening of the China (Macau) Traditional Medicine International Co-operation Forum at the Venetian in Cotai.
Ma said that as the public increasingly recognised the role TCM plays in treating diseases and staying healthy, Macau needed to strengthen its co-operation with the mainland to encourage the development of TCM in the city. He also said the local government should do more to integrate TCM in the local medical system.
“As our concepts of health are changing, it has become clearer that TCM has its unique way of treating diseases. Macau should closely co-operate with the mainland to highlight the advantages of TCM so as to provide local residents with better TCM health services, especially for common diseases in Macau”, Ma said.
Ma said the fact that President Xi Jinping visited the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine of the University of Macau in 2014 recognised Macau’s role in the modernisation of TCM.
Ma also said Macau should do more to embrace TCM to help diversify the local economy.
Meanwhile, also delivering a speech at the opening of the two-day forum, Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac said that a 15-year-long strategic plan to develop TCM released by the State Council early this year was an opportunity for Macau to get involved more deeply in the modernisation of TCM.
The TCM industrial park on Hengqin Island is run by Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park Development Co. Ltd. whose two shareholders are Macau Investment and Development Limited and Zhuhai Da Hengqin Investment Co. Ltd.
In early 2012, Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park Development Co. Ltd. obtained the right to use a plot of land covering 0.5 square kilometres in Hengqin for the development of the TCM industrial park, according to the website of Macau Investment and Development Limited, whose major shareholder is the Macau government.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
