Chan: Dialogue with officials to propel TCM development

Editor's Note: Officials from the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recently visited residents from various sectors, such as grassroots families, young entrepreneurs, fishermen and vendors, to listen to their concerns. These outreach activities triggered wide-ranging discussions within society. Here's what people have said in response.

Chan Wing-kwong

Chairman of the Hong Kong Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioner Association

I greatly appreciate the outreach campaign made by the central government officials, which will help Hong Kong society form a more accurate and appreciative understanding of the central government and its Hong Kong-related policies. Actually, other than grassroots families, fishermen, young entrepreneurs and vendors, liaison office officials also visited practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.

I believe the central government is mostly concerned about and supportive of those sectors and hopes they could make use of the country's policies, like the Greater Bay Area development blueprint. Even though Hong Kong is a financial hub, economic diversification is crucial to Hong Kong's long-term development, so that various sectors have balanced growth, and therefore residents can all live happily and make a living.

Listening to residents' opinions and suggestions is an important part to improve governance. When officials visit a district, they can listen to the challenges people face, their biggest concerns, and suggestions for supportive policies, and they can therefore see things from a different perspective, which will help improve policymaking.

Also, those recent outreach activities have set a positive example for serving the community with a people-centered mindset. These activities demonstrate that the central government has made Hong Kong residents' well-being and quality of living a high priority. The initiatives also set a good example for the Hong Kong governing team.

Besides, the outreach activities can also gather valuable suggestions directly from front-line Chinese medicine practitioners for policy improvements.

The "Construction Plan for the Chinese Medicine Highlands in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (2020-25)" has proposed policies that benefit Hong Kong people and the Chinese medicine area.

In the 2018-19 Budget, the government earmarked HK$500 million for the Chinese medicine Development Fund, which aimed to provide financial support to the sector and improve its overall standards, including training talents for TCM hospitals, sponsoring related scientific research and raising public awareness of TCM.

However, how these policies and the fund could really support front-line practitioners may not be fully considered. The direct dialogue between officials and our sector is the most effective way for the authorities to gain insights into issues the sector is concerned about, and make them better-informed when reviewing policies and looking into relevant recommendations.

As a matter of fact, the people-centered development philosophy stressed by Liaison Office Director Luo Huining is also the core theory in traditional Chinese medicine. It is to understand an individual's experience and feelings from their perspective and give treatment accordingly, which is a humanistic approach not only in treating patients, but also in policymaking and governance. I believe as long as a people-centered approach is adhered to in governance, the governing team in Hong Kong and all sectors of the community will understand the goodwill of the central government and work wholeheartedly for the well-being of the people of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's deep-seated problems such as the widening wealth gap, inadequate upward social mobility for young people, worsening poverty, the housing shortage, and the constraints of a narrow industrial base, are the major sources of social discontent in the city, and practical measures to resolve those problems have to be taken without further delay. Through dialogues in outreach activities with empathy, solutions in people-centered development could be effectively generated.