Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia in cooperation with ASEAN Secretariat, the Nippon Foundation of Japan, ASEAN Foundation as well as various related Government institutions, businesses, and foreign parties, together held the 3rd Conference on Traditional Medicine in ASEAN Countries from 31st October 2011 – 2nd November 2011 in the Sunan Hotel Solo, Indonesia. The main theme of the 3rd conference was “Utilization of Evidence Based Traditional Medicine in Health Care”.
The main aim of the conference was to follow up on the two previous conference which share declared the recommendation to accelerate the integration of traditional medicine in health care system. It was expected that the 3rd conference would generate a breakthrough approach in the development of traditional medicine that is applicable to all ASEAN member states.
The 3rd conference lasted for three days and was attended by more than 200 participants consisting of 8 delegates from each ASEAN member state (AMS), ASEAN focal points, the National Agency of Food and Drug Regulatory, researchers, representatives from TM Association/Industry and University/School of TM, another three countries (China, Japan and Korea) known as ASEAN Plus Three, the ASEAN Secretariat, WHO-SEARO and WHO-WPRO, WHO representative for Indonesia, the NIPPON Foundation, ASEAN Foundation, focal point of Ad Hoc ATFTM and other related ministry, hospital, health center, universities/faculty of TM, collegiums/professional body, various related government institutions, business as well as foreign parties.
The conference discussed and formulated a cooperation plan between AMS in four main areas which include:
- Facilitation of exchange of information on research results that emphasize on safety, efficacy and quality of herbal and traditional medicine (TM) medicine among AMS.
- Promotion of the use of TM (herbal medicine and modality) in the primary health care.
- Strengthening of the TM knowledge of health care personnel through training and education.
- Strengthening capacity of AMS to conduct research and safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicine.
