Grand opening: Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Sandra Lee and guests open the Chinese medicine conference.

The modernisation of Chinese medicine will not succeed without private sector participation, Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Sandra Lee says.

Opening the International Conference & Exhibition of the Modernisation of Chinese Medicine & Health Products and the Hong Kong International Medical & Healthcare Fair today, Ms Lee said the Government's vision and direction for the development of Chinese medicine is clear.

"The Government's strategy is to develop a robust regulatory regime for Chinese medicine practitioners, traders and proprietary Chinese medicines, and to ensure a sufficient supply of practitioners through funding of undergraduate courses. We believe these elements are crucial to nurturing an enabling environment for the Chinese medicine industry to flourish," she said.

Noting the regulatory system and the infrastructure for the Chinese medicine sector will be bolstered, Ms Lee said regulation is not meant to make things difficult for the trade.

Quality assurance

"Rather it aims to protect public health and to set a common standard for the trade to follow. We hope that 'registered in Hong Kong' will become a credible quality assurance for the Chinese medicine industry to develop their local and international markets. In a similar spirit, our intent of developing 'evidence-based' Chinese medicine is to lay a solid foundation for the industry and academics to pursue further research and development," she said.

So far six Chinese medicine clinics have been set up and three more will be ready by the end of the year. One of the missions of these clinics is to partake in clinical research and assist in data collection. The Hospital Authority is also offering evidence-based clinical treatment using a combination of Chinese and Western medicines in several hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health is developing the Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards for 60 common herbal medicines. They will serve as a reference for the trade, benchmarks for quality and safety, and the basis for further research.