A cooperation agreement to establish a Joint Research Centre for Chinese Innovative Medicines is signed today (13 February) in Beijing by four universities in the Greater China: Peking University (PKU), the National Taiwan University (NTU), the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the University of Macau (UM). The purpose of this Centre is to bring the academic and research strengths of the four universities into full play through collaboration in researching and developing innovative medicines and health products of world-class quality. This Centre will make the best use of UM's strength in Chinese medicine research and the nurturing of talents in this field so that it can advance research and development of Chinese innovative medicines to the world-class level. Several officials attended the occasion, including Vice Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NCP) Mr. Han Qide and Mr. Sang Guowei, Vice Minister of Health Mr. Liu Qian, and Vice Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Wang Weizhong. More than two hundred scholars from the four universities also witnessed this historic moment of collaboration in the Greater China in the field of Chinese bio-medical sciences. The President of PKU Prof. Zhou Qifeng, the President of NTU Prof. Si-chen Lee, the Vice-Chancellor of HKU Prof. Lap-Chee Tsui, and the Rector of UM Prof. Wei Zhao signed the agreement on behalf of their respective university at the ceremony. Mr. Han Qide stressed that in spite of the variance of the governance systems, educational philosophy, teaching and research focuses among the four higher learning institutions, they all worked proactively towards the same goal of making the Chinese hold their heads high internationally. For this purpose, we should all make the most of the forte of our tradition and chart a way for the research and innovation of traditional Chinese medicines by weathering all the difficulties in our way. Prof. Wei Zhao noted that thanks to the great joint efforts made over the past decade by the Macao SAR Government and the University of Macau in the research of Chinese medicine, UM was in a good stead to collaborate with the other top universities. The cooperation this time was a further testimony to and recognition of the commitment of the SAR Government, UM and the community at large. Macao would play an important role in this joint project by capitalizing on its unique strengths as well as the research facilities on the new campus of the University of Macau. Apart from that, our University would continue to expand the frontier of our research field and establish a faculty of health to provide better education, research and service for the societal development of the Macao SAR and diversification of its economy. A meeting will be held at UM next month to discuss the establishment of a joint research platform of the Centre.
