HONG KONG - Seven public medical institutions from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai will start the process to recruit 12 Chinese medicine practitioners from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, a high-level online conference held by the national and Guangdong provincial authorities of Chinese medicine heard on Monday.

The arrangement comes under a pilot scheme encouraging public medical institutions in the Chinese mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to recruit Chinese medicine practitioners from the two special administrative regions.

Eligible Chinese medicine practitioners must be permanent residents of the two SARs and have obtained recognized qualifications to practice on the mainland under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement. They must also love their cities and the country, be of good character and have a professional background that fits the job offer.

Recruitment notices will be put on each institution’s official website before Aug 31. The recruitment process will end on Sept 20, with vetting slated to finish before Sept 30. The results will be released before Oct 15.

Welcoming the announcement, the Hong Kong SAR government said it has been closely liaising with mainland authorities on the implementation of various measures to boost the development of Chinese medicine in the GBA.

"The HKSAR government greatly welcomes the official implementation of the measure and expresses gratitude to the relevant authorities of the central government and Guangdong province for their staunch support for the development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong,” Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee was quoted as saying in a statement.

“The measure enables Hong Kong CMPs to further their practice within the national healthcare system, thereby promoting exchanges in Chinese medicine and providing Hong Kong CMPs, in particular the younger generation, with the opportunity to pursue development in the GBA,” Chan said.

According to CEPA, registered healthcare professionals with recognized qualifications in Hong Kong, including Chinese medicine practitioners, can practice on the mainland on short-term deals.

The pilot scheme, formulated under the Construction Plan for the Chinese Medicine Highlands in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (2020-2025) which was issued on Sept 27, 2020, goes further by encouraging public medical institutions in the mainland to hire more practitioners from the two SARs.

In a video speech at the conference held in Guangzhou, Zhu Haidong, deputy director general of the Department of International Cooperation of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the pilot scheme is of great importance as it contributes to more flexible exchanges of Chinese medicine practitioners within the three regions.

With the flexible talent flow, it will have a positive impact on building the Bay Area into a Chinese medicine highland and on the internationalization of Chinese medicine, Zhu added.

As of Feb 28, 2021, there were 7,912 registered Chinese medicine practitioners in Hong Kong.