Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

THE Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) High-Quality Development Conference of China, attended by about 600 government officials, experts and representatives from related fields, was held in Guangming District on Wednesday and Thursday.

One important reason why the conference was held in Shenzhen was because the city has already taken the lead in the reform and innovation of the country’s TCM industry, according to the city’s health commission.

As early as 2016, Shenzhen was approved to build a national experimental zone for the comprehensive reform of TCM. In 2019, it established the country’s first specialized TCM hospital — Bao’an Authentic TCM Therapy Hospital.

In 2020, Shenzhen decided to build a large international TCM industrial park in Guangming based on the city’s TCM inheritance and development research institute. The park aims to provide one-stop services for all practitioners.

The park, with a planned floor area of 31,000 square meters, is situated at Guangming Science City, specifically in the Xiacun Second Industrial Zone, Gongming Subdistrict.

It aims to build a Shenzhen TCM preparation center, a Guangdong-Hong Kong medical institution TCM preparation center, a Shenzhen TCM strategic reserve base, a hospital combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and a TCM cross-border circulation and customs supervision area.

The park also cooperates with foreign countries to explore a new model of cross-border entrusted supervision of drugs.

According to Liu Kexin, president of the city’s TCM inheritance and development research institute, after nearly four years of efforts, the park has been identified by the provincial government as the “engine” of the TCM comprehensive reform demonstration zone in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The park is jointly operated by parties consisting of scientific research institutions, Guangdong and Hong Kong medical institutions, pharmaceutical enterprises, Chinese and foreign scientists, and government services.

The park’s international workshop for TCM development and testing, which covers an area of 2,876 square meters, has formed a global alliance. Traditional pharmaceutical companies from countries including Russia, Japan, Canada, Thailand, Pakistan, Mongolia and Serbia have joined the alliance, the city’s health authority said.