City plan just the medicine for global TCM
( 2002-03-19 09:47 ) (1 )

Traditional Chinese medicine's (TCM) worldwide promotion is to be helped thanks to an initiative by Nanyang city government in Central China's Henan Province.

Nanyang, believed to be one of the birth places of TCM, has mapped out a plan for TCM development in the new century.

The goal is to establish a chain-system integrating TCM education with research, planting, processing, marketing and clinical treatments, as well as transform TCM into a pillar industry of Nanyang to serve as the gateway of TCM into the world market, Ma Wangling, Party secretary of Nanyang said.

The city's plan coincides with the national plan to boost TCM in the 21st century.

As early as 1997, the State Administration of TCM put into practice a 10-year programme for TCM development abroad. Targets include setting up about 60 TCM clinics overseas, opening TCM courses in 10 overseas higher-education institutes, and promoting the sale of TCM products worldwide.

Most of the goals have been attained so far, sources with the administration confirmed.

To help popularize the theory of TCM overseas, and further exchange and collaboration with foreign counterparts, the State Administration of TCM, plus the people's government of Nanyang and the Henan provincial government, will jointly host an international gathering in Nanyang next month.

The so-called Academic Symposium on Zhang Zhongjing's Medical Thought and Trade Fair, held from April 8 to 10, is also a gateway for Nanyang to further open to the outside world, said Ma. The symposium is named after Zhang because Nanyang is the hometown of the well-know "King of TCM," born in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220).

The city is rich with natural herbal medicines; a total of 2,347 varieties of herbal plants have been discovered in the city, laying a solid foundation for TCM development.

Nanyang presently has five registered TCM manufacturing enterprises and 18 county-level TCM specialist hospitals.