The Chinese Government has taken an important stride in helping introduce traditional Chinese medicine to the international community.
　　 According to official sources, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) has launched a project to modernize traditional Chinese medicine.

Zou Jianqiang, office director of the rural and social development department of MST, said that the project aimed to develop varieties of traditional Chinese medicine which can be accepted by Westerners in the light of medical norms worldwide.

Zou said the project aimed to increase the share of traditional Chinese medicines in the global market to 15 per cent by 2010, up 10 percentage points over 1998.

Zou said the main problems in the sector included backward production equipment and technologies, weak theoretical research, small production scale and bad management in enterprises.

Outdated technologies have made traditional Chinese medicines unacceptable to foreigners. The bitter taste and inconvenience of consumption are not what modern patients are looking for, while many worry about the safety of such medicines.

Meanwhile, the outdated research methods cannot explain clearly the composition, the function or the application theories of Chinese medicines to consumers in the West.

Zou said that to help Western people understand and accept traditional Chinese medicine, the key is for industrial enterprises to apply modern advanced technologies in the research and production process and strengthen their management.

According to the project plan, the research centers, information systems and production facilities will begin to be established in the near future.

Moreover, there are plans to set up traditional Chinese medical hospitals in cooperation with foreign countries. And the government will organize the compilation of textbooks on traditional Chinese medicines in foreign languages.

Traditional Chinese medicines are mainly exported to Southeast Asian countries.

Industry statistics show that about 80-90 per cent of the total are exported to Southeast Asia.

Zou said exports to the USA market are generally treated as healthcare products; they are not allowed to enter the USA as real medicines.

The sales volume of traditional herbal medicines totals US$15 billion on the world market, with traditional Chinese medicines only accounting for 2 per cent.

Last year, China exported traditional herbal medicines worth over US$400 million, accounting for 5 per cent of all such exports worldwide. The remainder is shared by Japan, South Korea and India.

(from China Daily)