Pilot free trade zone President Xi Jinping on Friday announced a decision to develop the island of Hainan into a pilot free trade zone. A free trade port is the world’s most open form of economic zone, which has brought prosperity to places like Singapore and Hong Kong thanks to its broad-based* preferential policies on trade and investment. Policies and institutional systems for building a free trade port in Hainan will be established “step by step and stage by stage,” Xi said at a gathering celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hainan Province and the Hainan Special Economic Zone. TCM education China plans to combine the master-apprentice system with college education to train more practitioners in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), according to a guideline issued by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. With a history of more than 2,000 years, TCM has unique theories and practices in herbal medicine, acupuncture,* massage and dietetics*. The master-apprentice system is part of the tradition of TCM. Anticancer drugs A series of new policies on anticancer drugs in China will give hope to the country’s cancer patients. According to the statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council on Thursday, starting May 1, import tariffs on all common drugs including cancer drugs, cancer alkaloid*-based drugs, and imported traditional Chinese medicine will be exempt. Also, value-added tax in the production and import of drugs will drop by a large margin, which experts believe will be more effective in easing the economic burden of patients. HK pet bird market The government of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has announced the closure of a pet bird market after the detection of bird flu virus in a bird shop. A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said Friday that H5 avian influenza virus had been detected in a swab* sample taken from a hill myna* in a bird cage at a pet bird shop in Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, a pet bird market in Mong Kok. (SD-Agencies) | 