On Monday and Tuesday, academic exchanges on 18 special subjects are expected to be held in six branch conference halls together with six satellite conferences.

Ten outstanding scholars will speak in the main conference hall and over 1,000 theses will be under discussion at the congress.

In a congratulatory letter to the congress, Vice-Premier Li Lanqing expressed his hope that it would further promote the development of integrative medicine, as well as enhance co-operation in the field between Chinese medical science circles and their foreign counterparts.

The Chinese Government has long attached great importance to the development of traditional Chinese medicine with the strategy of giving equal emphasis to Chinese and Western medicine, according to Li.

China's integrative medicine has scored lasting achievements in recent years, especially during the past five years, following the First World Integrative Medicine Congress, which drew world-wide attention to the field, said She Jing, vice-minister of health.

A wide array of medical achievements have been made.

For example, using integrative medicine to cure white blood corpuscle deficiency, hepatitis, cardiovascular disease, burns and fractures, according to She.

She also noted that integrative medicine faces unprecedented opportunities to make use of technological advances such as modern gene projects, biological discoveries, computerization and microelectronics.

(People's Daily September 23, 2002)