The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and tunnel seen on Sunday, as final preparations were made for its opening on Wednesday. [Photo by Vincent Chan/ for China Daily] The 55-kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, scheduled to open for traffic on Wednesday, will provide a crucial boost to the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, analysts said. As the first road link to span the Pearl River Estuary, the bridge and tunnel will energize the regional economy and integrate cities from both sides of the estuary into one dynamic community. The Bay Area, in the Pearl River Delta, encompasses nine cities in Guangdong province plus the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao. Last year, the total GDP of those 11 cities reached 11.7 trillion yuan ($1.69 trillion). That means 5 percent of the nation's population contributed over 14 percent of country's GDP in 2017. Like the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States, the strategy behind the development of the Bay Area in China was to merge the 11 cities into a world-class city cluster, able to compete on a global scale. The HZMB is one of the most important elements of the development of the Bay Area, said Jason Ni Mengcheng, an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. Ni specializes in research into large transportation infrastructure. silicone bracelets custom cheap canadabest place to buy silicone wristbandscanadian wristbandssilicone bandsilicone lymphedema bracelet
A pharmacist takes drugs at a hospital in Beijing. [Photo/VCG] BEIJING - China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved 18 new cancer medicines in 2018, up 157 percent on 2017, said an NMPA official Tuesday. Cancer medicines accounted for 37.5 percent of the total new medicines approved in 2018, a notable increase over previous years, said Wang Ping, chief of the division of medicine registration under the NMPA, at a press conference. It takes 12 months on average for a new anti-cancer medicine to be approved by the NMPA, down from 24 months before 2018, Wang said. Last year the Chinese government adopted a series of measures to speed up the approval of imported and domestically-developed cancer medicines. According to Wang, the government exempted imported medicines from quarantine at border ports so they could reach hospitals and pharmacies as quickly as possible. The approving procedure for imported medicines to enter the Chinese market as well as that for domestic pharmaceutical firms to conduct clinical tests were also simplified. The NMPA and National Health Commission (NHC) listed 48 types of imported medicines that were much needed in China, including those for rare and deadly diseases. The review period of imported medicines for rare diseases is three months, while for the rest it is six months. The country has tried to develop a favorable policy environment for innovation in medicines so that the latest medical research findings could benefit Chinese patients as soon as possible, Wang said. This year the NMPA will work with the NHC to develop the second list of much needed imported medicines that are qualified for fast-track review, he said. The NMPA will also try to speed up the review procedure for imported and domestic cancer medicines and tighten up monitoring of adverse reactions, he added.
