A medical worker performs cupping therapy on a patient at Shanxi Traditional Chinese Medical Hospital in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, on July 26. — Zhu Xingxin /China Daily

As traditional Chinese medicine gains popularity in Southeast Asia, industry insiders say they are eying the expansion of TCM medicinal herb cultivation overseas to make such therapies more accessible.

“Traditional Chinese medicine is very popular in Cambodia because it can treat a variety of diseases,” said Nhek Soparama, minister counsellor of the Cambodian embassy in China. “Over the past two years more than 20,000 Cambodians have received TCM treatment.”

She was speaking at the 2024 China-ASEAN Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry Exchange and Promotion Conference, held in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, recently.

The conference attracted more than 300 participants, including ambassadors from Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, international organisations and regional TCM authorities.

Rogerio Paulo Chaves, counsellor of the Timor-Leste embassy in Beijing, said people from Southeast Asian countries, including his country, have long benefitted from TCM.

“Many young people and students from Timor-Leste are studying medicine in China, and we have encouraged them to dedicate more efforts to learning TCM.”

Budi Hansyan, commercial counsellor of the Indonesian embassy in Beijing, said many more Indonesians began using TCM after COVID-19 broke out.

Authorities are looking forward to introducing more TCM products to Indonesia and expect China to import more medicinal herbs from Indonesia, he said.

In their push to promote TCM, ASEAN countries have encouraged TCM manufacturers to plant medicinal herbs and manufacture TCM locally, as part of efforts to promote the therapy’s acceptance, cut costs and advance local economic development, according to a blue book on the TCM industry in ASEAN countries issued during the conference.

The conference was told that a traditional medicinal herb planting base covering about 1,333 hectares is expected to be ready for large-scale cultivation within two to three years in Cambodia. Medicinal herbs in high demand will be grown there.

Guo Chuanwei, director of the trade and investment division of the ASEAN-China Centre in Beijing, said ASEAN countries are the main foreign planting areas of medicinal herbs and important partners for trade involving TCM products.

“With increasing recognition of TCM overseas and the growing TCM market, some Chinese companies are trying to cultivate Chinese medicinal herbs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and other ASEAN countries,” he said.

Six provinces, including Shanxi, formed an alliance at the conference to promote the high-quality development of TCM. — China Daily