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The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, this (June 26) afternoon expressed his gratitude to the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) for donating HK$500 million to fund research programmes and activities of the HKJC Institute of Chinese Medicine (ICM).

Officiating at a ceremony, Mr Tung said he was delighted that the HKJC had donated money in support of the idea of setting up an ICM.

He said: "The Institute of Chinese Medicine will pool human and other resources together, coordinate various research projects for Chinese medicine, encourage entrepreneurs to work together with our universities to promote research and development of Chinese medicine, formulate long-term development strategies for the Chinese medicine industry, devise quality assessment of Chinese medicinal products and stimulate more efforts towards the commercialisation of Chinese medicine."

The Chief Executive thought that Hong Kong is benefited from its unique position and longstanding cooperation with the Mainland. These advantages, together with the well-established existing brand names and products of Chinese medicine in the field, will enable Hong Kong to develop traditional Chinese medicine into commercialised modern products through the application of innovation and technology and enjoy a share in the world market of medicine.

He said: "To achieve this goal, the SAR Government is committed to providing a favourable environment for entrepreneurial development in this area."

He added that the Government gave support to researches in this field by injecting several hundred million Hong Kong dollars for the funding of a series of research programmes on Chinese medicine.

Mr Tung said that it was most encouraging to note that since mid-1999, quite a number of local and overseas enterprises had shown interest in investing in the development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong.

He was glad to announce that several enterprises had already submitted to the Government their proposals on research and development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and that they are considering actively the setting up of business in the industrial estate for quality production of Chinese medicine on a larger scale.

He said: "This shows that the enterprises share our vision that Hong Kong has the edge to develop Chinese medicine and that they are fully aware of the rich business potential of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong."

The Chief Executive said: "I am confident that with the integration of resources and strengths from the Government, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, enterprises and tertiary institutions, we will definitely gather greater momentum for achieving our goal of developing Hong Kong into an international centre for Chinese medicine, explore a new horizon for the development of Hong Kong's economy, attract more investment and create more job opportunities."

Also officiating at today's donation ceremony were the Chairman of the HKJC, Mr Alan Li, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Co Ltd, Mr Allan Wong.

Photo: The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, officiated at a donation ceremony in which the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) donated $500 million to fund an Institute of Chinese Medicine's research programmes and activities in pursuit of its public mission - to be the world centre for the development of health food and pharmaceuticals based on Chinese medicine. Also present at the ceremony were the Chairman of HKJC, Mr Alan Li; the Chief Executive of HKJC, Mr Lawrence Wong; the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Co Ltd, Mr Allan Wong and the Secretary for Trade and Industry, Mr CHAU Tak Hay.¡@Picture shows Mr Tung and Mr Alan Li officiating at the donation ceremony.

End/Monday, June 26, 2000

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