Jamu seminar opens next month

JAKARTA (JP): An exhibition and seminar on Indonesia's traditional herbal medicine, jamu, its role as an alternative medicine and strategies to market it globally, will be held at the Kartika Chandra Hotel here on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13.

Program organizers -- the Health Writers Club and dating agency Yasco -- announced yesterday that Minister of Health Sujudi is to open the function and K.R. Hemas, the wife of Yogyakarta's Sultan Hamengku Buwono X have, will close it.

Committee chairman M.S. Hasbie said the aim of the exhibition and seminar was to promote the use of jamu as an alternative medicine as well as to analyze the extent to which the government promotes it through its policies.

Hasbie said all jamu companies were welcomed to participate in the exhibition, and added that jamu vendors would also be invited to take part in the event.

The seminar, he said, would feature government bureaucrats, jamu experts and successful jamu businesspeople like the health ministry's Director General of Medicine and Food Supervision Wisnu Katim, Professor Sardjono O. Santoso of the University of Indonesia, and businesswomen Mooryati Soedibyo and Martha Tilaar.

Parties interested in participating in the exhibition or the seminar can contact the committee secretariat at Jl. Kramat Lontar J-67, Central Jakarta, or call 3857005/fax: 3147234 for further information. (aan)