MALAYSIA aims to be the largest herb producer by 2010 and with emphasis on this, has assembled on international Advisory Panel comprising the world’s leading authorities in different disciplines to help formulate plan.

Chairman on the International Advisory Panel Dr Gerard Bedeker, who is also chairman of the Global Initiative for traditional System (GIFTS) of Health at the Oxford University and coordinate the Commonwealth Working Group on Traditional and complementary Medicines told Business Times in an interview that this is the largest and most comprehensive initiative ever taken.

"I’m here as chairman of the IAP of world experts on herbal medicine and as adviser to the developing the herbal medicine sector with a view to assisting Malaysia become a significant player in what’s becoming a huge global market. "Through this pogramme, we have the opportunity to enhance healthcare in Malaysia through proper research and development of important medicines from forests, strengthen local traditionally familiar medicines, enhance rural devilment by creating micro enterprises for villages and address forest conservation.

"Right now there are many different agencies dealing with different aspects of this. The Government has said it wants to integrate all the parts into a unified whole and move ahead in a systematic way.

"India and China is moving towards this but Malaysia is the only country, I am aware of, taking a comprehensive multi-sectoral development approach to build a significant international herbal industry," he said.

The IAP consists of world authorities on conservation and community micro-enterprises development, horticultural research, industrial development and trade analysis, pharmacological and clinical evaluation of herbal medicines and international regulatory issues and the development of the Gold Standards for herbs from the India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, UK, US and France.

It held its two-day inaugural meeting in Kota Baru on Monday. "We are going to come up with a set of recommendations for the Government to move forward at a rapid pace for the integrated development of this sector and through the recommendation, develop the blueprint for a national strategic plan.

"Of course we cannot develop a national strategic plan in two days, but we can outline the framework, structure and priorities. Then the IAP is offering to assist Malaysia in implementing those recommendations and proferring advice and direction as required.

Bodeker said the World Conservation Union estimates the global market for medicinal herbs at around US$60 (US$1=RM3.80) billion a year in herbal products.

"The idea is to place priority in developing this sector with the highest possible benefits.

These would be strengthening the traditions of healthcare and tropical forest conservation. It will also be instrumental in developing rural communities by turning them into self sustaining processing sites for herbs, arresting the rural-urban drift and the rural-urban income disparity.

"Medicinal plants constitute a valuable cash crop, vested, can bring in more money than timber.

The international, market for herbs is among the highly educated, socially conscious people who have a higher disposable income.

"Dr Michael Balick, the director of research of the New York Botanical Gardens has found that the economic value of timber and medicinal plants take two to three years to regenerate while timber takes 30 to 50 years to regenerate.

"So it’s worth 10 times more and regenerates 10 to 20 times faster."

Bodeker said this part of a new economic which place a different value on tropical forest. "Timber can be considered as valuable as an overstorey to protect the cash crop on the forest floor. This is an important way to realising the conservation equation.

"It’s economically-based and what we know about conservation is that people will conserve what they value.

"Malaysia has been identified by the Global Environment Facility as a biodiversity hotspot and we want to offer this as a conservation programme that makes economic sense. We cannot force people to change their business practices but the smart ones will see where the money is and it is up to us to structure a programme to get the message out.

"We’re offering to stay involved for as long as Malaysia wants and we are looking at implementation of the programme by as early as next year," he said.