Jiading New City holds Chinese medicine-focused summit

The First Chinese Medicine Industry Summit was held on July 31, at Jiading New City, an area dedicated to developing the health industry in Shanghai.

The summit was co-sponsored by the Jiading New City management committee, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Association of Chinese Medicine, and the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies.

Experts from various institutions including government, universities, and industry associations attended the event to discuss how to create the world's leading Chinese medicine service hub.

One highlight of the summit was an agreement signed to build a Chinese medicine industrial base in Jiading New City. The base will serve various Chinese medicine companies nearby and advance the formation and development of a Chinese medicine industry cluster in the area.

According to organizers of the event, the summit and the establishment of the base are expected to help Jiading New City integrate the development of the Chinese medicine industry with regional economic and social development.

Jiading New City has made efforts to push forward its health industry. For instance, the Shanghai International Health Industrial Park built several years ago now has up to 200 registered companies, which paid over 20 million yuan ($2.95 million) in taxes last year.

Huang Jian, general manager of the park, revealed that the park has a vision to create a health industry cluster focusing on Chinese medicine, health management, and health technology industries.

He said that partners are carefully selected and include institutions such as Ikang, University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Ruijin Hospital.

"The park will continue to expand Chinese medicine industry, improve the talent training platform, and bring in advanced medical service such as genetic test", Huang added.

Jiading New City intends to form a comprehensive health industrial development system integrating Chinese medicine service, technology, trade, and culture.

To achieve this goal, it will promote the construction of a health industrial park, two new hospitals, three medicine-focused bases, and four centers involving medicine R&D, testing, trading, and exhibition.