Ramzah (centre) receives a memento from CGCM chairman Prof Tommy Yung-Chin Cheng as Abdul Rahman applauds.

KUCHING: Sarawak’s biodiversity holds huge potential for the herbal industry to grow endogenously and increase economic activities both in the upstream and downstream and across the whole value chain.

In stating this, Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (Mestecc) deputy secretary-general Assoc Prof Dr Ramzah Dambul said that the industry is also able to contribute to higher share in the economic pie within the agriculture sector and the GDP of the country.

“The herbal and spices industry is indeed a long-established industry in the world. The future of this industry is very promising and is projected to generate new sources of wealth for the nation,” he said at the opening of the Consortium for Globalisation of Chinese Medicine (CGCM) 2018 at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.

He added that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has become an essential part of health protection and disease control for thousands of years, and the best thing is most ingredients used is natural.

The increasing awareness among people about organic plants and traditional medicines is a good starting point to further expand and improve the productivity and development of the herbal industry not just in Malaysia but in China and other Asian countries as well, he said.

“Thus, our ministry realised the efforts of National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia (NIBM) that supports the Mestecc mission and vision through one of its institutes, Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals (IPharm).”

The three-day event organised by IPharm and NIBM attracted over 250 participants, who are mostly from China.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research permanent secretary Datu Sudarsono Osman said the Sarawak government was proud to be chosen as the host for the consortium meeting.

He said it not only marks the sharing of knowledge between researchers and scientists in Chinese medicine but it also celebrates the milestone for CGCM and Malaysia.

“It is a testament that Sarawak offers the right mix of strategic value propositions as a suitable place and become one-stop centre among research agencies, higher learning institutes and corporate agencies to share ideas, knowledge and experiences for benefit of humankind,” he said in a text of speech read by his deputy Dr Abdul Rahman Deen.