Hong Kong-made proprietary Chinese medicine products have great potential to enter mainland and overseas markets, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said on Thursday.

The mainland, which is the largest proprietary Chinese medicine market valued at 450 billion yuan, has streamlined the registration and approval procedures for products from Hong Kong.

At a press conference, the council’s principal economist of Greater China, Wing Chu, said Hong Kong’s exports of proprietary Chinese medicines totalled HK$2.88 billion last year.

More than 70 percent of the city's products were exported to the mainland, followed by 20 percent to Macau.

Although the mainland mainly relies on its own drug production and only imports a small amount of Chinese medicines, over half of its imported proprietary Chinese medicines are from Hong Kong, Chu said.

He added that the streamlined approval procedures offer more opportunities for Hong Kong businesses to expand into the Greater Bay Area and other mainland cities.

“Maybe Hong Kong-produced products are not the cheapest in the market, and there are a lot of alternative choices over there, but Hong Kong proprietary Chinese medicine products have a [good reputation] in mainland China, especially in the southern part of mainland China,” he said.

Chu said there is also demand for Chinese medicines in overseas markets, particularly in Southeast Asia.

“But apart from this, there is also a lot of demand … even in the US or some European countries. They also have a demand for the traditional Chinese medicines. And this actually provides a very good market potential for us to explore,” he said.

The council also said the opening of Hong Kong’s first Chinese medicine hospital at the end of the year will help make proprietary Chinese medicines even more popular.