Thailand Issues Its First Chinese-Medicine Practice Licenses
On January 9, at the Overseas-Chinese Chinese-Medicine Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Korn Dabbaransi presented certificates to 11 TCM practitioners who had received Thailand's first Chinese-medicine practice licenses. This was the first issuance of TCM licenses since Thailand legalized Chinese medicine on July 1 of last year.
In his remarks, Korn Dabbaransi said that Chinese medicine has a long history in Thailand. As TCM gains legal status, more practitioners will be able to obtain certificates and practice legally, giving the Thai people more and better choices in medical care. As chairman of the Thai-Chinese Friendship Association, he said he believes that Thai-Chinese medical exchange will benefit the people of both countries and further the existing friendship.
Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Fu Xuezhang, who attended the ceremony, said that Thailand's issuance of the licenses is another result of medical cooperation between the two countries and marks a fine beginning for medical cooperation in the new century.
It is reported that since Thailand announced the legalization of Chinese medicine last year, several hundred people have applied to the government for practice licenses. Sino-Thai cooperation in Chinese medicine has steadily strengthened in recent years; the two governments signed memoranda of medical cooperation in 1997 and 2000.
Excerpted from China Traditional Chinese Medicine News, January 15, 2001