Vietnam has a tropical monsoon, humid climate; thus natural resources are diverse. According to preliminary statistics, the country is home to some 10,350 species of vascular plants, some 800 species of mosses, some 600 species of fungi, and more than 2,000 species of algae. Known animals include 224 genera of mammals, 828 genera of birds, 259 genera of amphibian reptiles and 5,500 species of insects. Notably, many of them are used as medicinal materials.
Ethnic groups in Vietnam have rich experience in medicinal plants. While forestland is shrinking and forest resources and medicinal sources are subsequently being rapidly reduced and depleted, the government has adopted forest protection and development guidelines and policies (e.g. the project of planting 5 million hectares of forests, the Vietnam forestry development strategy for the 2006 - 2010 period). As a result, forest coverage in the country has gradually increased.
Currently, the world is speeding up research on natural medicines and biological products, as their economic values are typically high. China annually uses 700,000 tonnes of medicinal herbs to produce 6,266 types of medicines for export at a value of US$17.57 billion. India also earns some 60 billion rupees (US$1.33 billion) from export of medicinal materials each year.
To use medicinal materials not only for curing diseases for Vietnamese people but also for increasing forex reserves for the nation, the Government has assigned responsible ministries to evaluate the current status and potential of medicinal materials in our country to apply suitable measures for developing and exploiting domestic medicinal sources. Among principal measures, sustainable forest use and development in association with pharmaceutical herb plantation and environmental protection are pressing strategies.
According to economic specialists, Vietnam should have a national programme for medicinal material development, introduce planting and post-harvest processing training programmes to pharmaceutical, medical, agricultural and forestry schools, and speed up biotech applications to reproduce, culture, and process medicinal herbs. Besides, Vietnam must unify the joint efforts of all concerned authorities like health sector, agricultural sector, and scientific and technological sectors.
Currently, some companies in Vietnam have successfully built up this effective model. Particularly, enterprises are the link to gather ministries, scientists and farmers to research the process from seedlings to medicinal materials and medicaments to cure human diseases and develop the trademark of Vietnamese medicinal materials on the international market.
But, to make the pharmaceutical industry a cash-earning sector, the Government and authorities of other tiers must invest in building technical facilities for research, basic training and planning of medicinal herb zones. Besides, companies involved in this cause must be provided incentives.
To commercialise medicinal material zones, it is necessary to make the pharmaceutical industry a key economic sector and robustly develop the pharmaceutical industry in combination with economic development, environmental protection and social security guarantee.
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