Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Ieong U attended the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, where she met with Rudi Eggers, director of integrated health services at the WHO; and Kim Sungchol, head of the WHO’s traditional, complementary and integrative medicine unit.

The WHO officials expressed their gratitude for the Macau government’s continued support for their work in the traditional medicine field, including training health officials, providing technical files for clinical research, and standardising TCM terminology.

According to a government statement, the WHO representatives said that they would provide essential tools for TCM professionals, policymakers, and healthcare workers to strengthen capacity-building efforts in the sector.

In return, the secretary highlighted the importance of traditional Chinese medicine in Chinese culture, as well as how common its application is in Macau. She expressed hopes for continued cooperation between the Macau government and the WHO to promote TCM development.

According to the official, the WHO and the Macau government have signed three cooperation agreements on traditional medicine since 2011.

In 2021, as many as 1.3 million patients resorted to traditional Chinese medicine in Macau. In other words, each resident consulted a TCM practitioner nearly twice on average in 2021.

A centre dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine in cooperation with the World Health Organization was established in Macau in August 2015.

The government has since organised 15 regional and local WHO workshops, providing training opportunities for health officials from around the world in the city.