As the global pharmaceutical industry undergoes major restructuring, China is expected to develop into one of the world's most important pharmacy processing centers, a top government official said Tuesday.

"While continuing to develop its own medicinal products, China will also become an efficient pharmacy processing center," said YuMingde, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Economic

Operations of the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC), at a seminar on the development of China's pharmaceutical industry in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province.

Fierce competition has compelled transnational medicine companies to carry out large-scale restructuring, with "transfer of production" as one of the salient features. While keeping the production of herbs with independent intellectual property rights (IPR) on their home turf, many are moving the production of herbs with no IPR difficulties to developing countries.

In addition, China has a market with a great potential.

"China should not feel inferior because it is being used as a processing center", an SETC official says." Doing this will be good for the global economy and China itself will benefit economically."

US General Electric is considering moving the production of all its X-ray machine, CT scanners and ultrasonic equipment to China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2002)