A ground breaking ceremony for a traditional Chinese medicine industrial park, invested by Sinopharm, is held in Harbin on April 19. [Photo/Ice City Plus]

A traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industrial park officially started construction in the Harbin New Zone in Harbin, the capital city of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, on April 19.
 
The TCM industrial park is invested by China National Pharmaceutical Group Co (Sinopharm), a large healthcare group directly under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
 
In 2021, Sinopharm's operating income exceeded 700 billion yuan, ranking 80th on the list of the Fortune 500 companies and No 1 among global pharmaceutical companies.
 
The first phase of the industrial park project aims to achieve an investment of 250 million yuan ($35.97 million).
 
When the industrial park is put into use, it will have a production capacity of 1,000 metric tons of Chinese herbal medicine and 300 tons of Chinese medicine granules annually.
 
It is expected to achieve an average annual sales income of more than 300 million yuan, and provide around 200 job opportunities.
 
Liu Jingzhen, chairman of Sinopharm, said in his speech that the official start of construction of the industrial park is not only an important measure to accelerate the layout and development of Sinopharm's TCM sector, but is also a specific action to support Heilongjiang in accelerating the establishment of a biomedical industry cluster.
 
The win-win cooperation between the two sides will have a positive and far-reaching impact.