Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Thursday revealed the city’s bid to host more international traditional Chinese medicine events through financial and other support, as the city opened a clinical trials institute to boost drug development.
Over 200 guests from China and overseas on Thursday gathered at the inaugural Bauhinia International Traditional Chinese Medicine Summit, organized by Bauhinia Magazine, to envisage Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s role in development and international collaboration.
Lee, in a video speech to the event, said he has put forward an array of policy initiatives in the latest Policy Address to promote TCM development in Hong Kong.
Lee said the government will fund and encourage more international TCM events to be held in the city to facilitate cross-boundary exchanges of TCM knowledge and talents, as well as to help TCM go global.
His administration will continue to boost international research on integrative therapies of Chinese and western medicines, with an aim to formulate globally recognized clinical medicine guidelines and introduce TCM service to more countries and regions, said Lee.
A Chinese medicine development blueprint will also be published next year to map out policy priorities, Lee added.
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Before concluding his speech, the chief executive reaffirmed his confidence in Hong Kong’s greater contribution to the high-quality development of TCM in medical services, personnel training, scientific and technological innovation and cultural communication.
“We will strive to leverage Hong Kong's role as a window to the world and develop the city‘s into a bridgehead for TCM’s internationalization,” Lee noted.
Also on Thursday, the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute owned by the Hong Kong government, was officially opened in the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone.
The institute will coordinate clinical trial resources in Hong Kong’s public and private healthcare sectors to provide one-stop support for collaboration on medical research and talent training across the Bay Area on all fronts, playing a pivotal role for clinical trial network cooperation between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.
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A similar clinical trials center operated by the Shenzhen government was also officially opened in the Co-operation Zone’s Shenzhen Park on the same day.
The two clinical trials centers will jointly extend the research and development network under the "one zone, two parks" model.
