Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau attended the fourth Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Conference on Inheritance, Innovation & Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine via video conferencing today.

Speaking at the event, Prof Lo said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government expressed its sincere gratitude to relevant Mainland ministries and commissions as well as experts for their staunch support and guidance on the development of Chinese Medicine (CM) in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong SAR Government will further enhance Hong Kong's role under the blueprint set out in the Construction Plan for the Chinese Medicine Highlands in the GBA (2020-2025) and actively co-ordinate stakeholders of Hong Kong's CM sector to integrate into the overall development of CM in the nation and the bay area.

It will also support the implementation of various policies and measures to give full play to Hong Kong's unique advantages, he noted.

In addition, Prof Lo pointed out that under the framework of the construction of CM highlands in the GBA, Hong Kong has been making remarkable achievements in areas such as the training and exchange of talent, CM service development, standard setting and industry development of CM drugs. The co-operation can be further deepened with a view to giving more impetus to the CM development in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong will also fully utilise its important role as the country's window to the international markets in promoting inheritance, innovation and co-operation in CM in the GBA, and play a more important role in promoting the area of internationalisation and standard setting of CM, among others.

To enable more stakeholders of Hong Kong's CM sector to participate in this year's conference, the Health Bureau's Chinese Medicine Unit set up a sub-venue at the Central Government Offices with a live-feed connection to the main venue in Zhongshan.

The Seminar on Promoting the Development of CM Highlands in GBA was convened in the afternoon with the attendance of relevant government officials and representatives of organisations in the bay area. They discussed how to further promote exchanges and co-operation in CM as well as the use of CM in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

Prof Lo said: “With the staunch support of the motherland, the Hong Kong SAR Government and the CM sector have been working together to take forward a wide range of anti-epidemic work, enabling the in-depth participation of CM in the whole process of epidemic prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, thereby making important contributions to the fight against the epidemic.

“The Hong Kong SAR Government is grateful to the nation for its unwavering support for Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work, including sending a team of CM experts to Hong Kong to offer guidance and assisting Hong Kong in stabilising the supply of anti-epidemic proprietary Chinese medicines.”

The health chief added that the Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to step up its efforts in promoting the development of CM and actively participate in the construction of CM highlands in the GBA, as well as strengthen exchanges and co-operation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau so as to join hands in driving the construction of CM highlands in the GBA and integration into the national development of the Healthy China Initiative.