KUCHING: More than 250 local and international delegates participated in the 17th Meeting of Consortium for Globalisation of Chinese Medicine (CGCM) at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here. The three-day conference from 8 until 10 August 2018 is organised by the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia (NIBM) together with Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals (IPharm) and CGCM.
The 17th CGCM was officiated by Deputy Secretary General (STI) of Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change (MESTECC), Associate Professor Dr Ramzah Dambul. The main objective of CGCM is to foster academic exchanges and research collaborations on various frontiers of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in pursuing the goal of advancing the field of TCM and also to benefit human kind.
“Technology has improved almost every aspect of healthcare and because of this, new development are constantly introduced to our life. Our ministry is the guardian of science and technology, and NIBM is one of our agencies, “CGCM is a strategic partnership and this international collaboration is proof that NIBM is committed to drive our ministry’s agenda especially in healthcare,” said Ramzah.
He added that TCM has become an essential part of healthcare system in most parts of the Asian countries. “It relies on international product and has played a very important role in health protection and disease control for thousands of years. The best thing about this medicine is the ingredients are natural.
“The increasing awareness among people about organic plants and traditional medicine is a good starting point to further improve the productivity and also the development of herbal industry.
The future of this industry is very promising although there are some challenges. We still have a lot of unexplored biodiversity,” he said.
Acupuncture, bioinformatics, clinical investigations, education,
herbal resources, natural products, polychemical activities and mechanism studies, regulation and interregional collaborations in academia and industry are among the themes that will be covered during the conference.
Also present were the Chairman of CGCM, Prof Tommy Yung-Chi Cheng and Deputy Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research Sarawak, Dr Abdul Rahman Deen.
