As part of China's cultural treasure, traditional Chinese medicine is currently attracting plenty of attention from around the world.
At Sunday's 2002 International Conference and Exhibition on Modernizing Traditional Chinese Medicine (ICETCM) held in Sichuan Province, Li Xueyong, deputy minister of science and technology, said China would depend on scientific progress to completely modernize and internationalize traditional Chinese medicine.
The ICETCM 2002 is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, State Drug Administration, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Sichuan Provincial Government.
More than 4,000 people from 24 countries and regions, including senior officials from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, science and health ministers, scholars and CEOs of global drug manufacturers and officials of the US Food and Drug Administration.
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing sent a letter of congratulations to the meeting, hoping that it would further promote communication and cooperation among the world's traditional medicine circles and make traditional Chinese medicine better serve human health.
Experts saying the conference would help show the great progress China had made in modernizing the traditional Chinese medicine industry and promote its development.
In recent years, the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine have become more obvious, according to data at the conference. The great potential and good prospects of traditional natural medicine have made it a focus of development of the global medicine industry.
In China, said Li Xueyong, a total of 18 ministries jointly launched an action plan in 1997 for developing traditional Chinese medicine by means of modern science and technology. Sichuan has since then designated by the Ministry of Science and Technology as China's first national base for the modernization of the traditional Chinese medicine industry.
Li emphasized that with China entering the World Trade Organization; the traditional Chinese medicine industry should work harder to sharpen its competitive edge by accelerating technological innovation.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2002)
