In a directive issued on May 10, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh instructed the ministries of health and finance to address challenges hindering the export of medicinal plants.

Given the rich biodiversity of the Ben En National Park, its Management Board has carried out a scientific project on surveying and assessing the situation and conserving and sustainably developing medicinal plants in the park.

Herbal medicines in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai have helped to attract more tourists to the locality.

Lao Cai province has directed localities to gradually restore and develop medicinal plants, expand growing areas, and supply raw materials for local pharmaceutical processing companies and corporations.

Growing medicinal plants has helped tackle hunger and poverty for ethnic minority people in the central province of Quang Nam’s Tay Giang district, according to Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper.

The Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Chuncheon Bioindustry Foundation (CBF) has signed a number of cooperation agreements with Vietnamese localities and companies in the field of biotechnology.

A scientific project to preserve and develop the genetic resources of the medicinal plants Ba Kich (Morinda officinalis How) and Sa nhan tim (Amomum Longiligulare T.L.Wu) is underway in Pu Hu Nature Reserve, the northern central province of Thanh Hoa.

The lack of a master plan has been blamed for Vietnam having to import up to 80 percent of its processed pharmaceutical materials although the country has an abundant source of pharmaceutical materials and was one of top exporters of raw pharmaceutical materials in the 1980s.

The Republic of Korea will send experts to help the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak develop medicinal plants for Agent Orange/dioxin treatment, heard a seminar in Buon Ma Thuot city on Nov 27

The first large-scale oriental medicine factory was inaugurated on September 24 in Phu Hoi Industrial Zone in the Duc Trong district of the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.