A meeting of Senior Officials
of the six signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
on Drug Control, namely Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand
and Vietnam, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) will be held in Krabi Province from 17 to 19 May 2004
hosted by the Government of Thailand. H.E. Mr. Phongthep Thepkanjana,
Minister of Justice of Thailand, will preside the opening ceremony.
The MOU on Drug Control was signed in 1993 by
the Governments of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and UNODC, and
in 1995 Cambodia and Viet Nam also became parties to the MOU.
This year's meeting will mark the first in the second decade of
cooperation after the six countries and UNODC celebrated the 10th
year anniversary of successful subregional cooperation in drug
control last year.
At Krabi, the six MOU signatory countries will
discuss developments and progress of the operations of Subregional
Action Plan, currently comprising 14 on-going and pipeline projects
with the total budget of more than US$ 13 million, covering drug
demand reduction, alternative development and law enforcement.
This year MOU countries will sign a project documerit entitled
"Regional Collaboration on Community-based Alternative Development
to Eliminate Opium Production in Southeast Asia" to continue
to strengthen regional cooperation and establish institutional
linkages to share innovative approaches and best practices on
participatory alternative development and illicit crop elimination.
The six countries will also report illicit drug
situations in their countries, as well as achievements made and
plans for eliminating illicit drugs towards the target year of
2008 as agreed by the 1998 United Nations General Assembly's Special
Session (UNGASS).
The MOU Senior Officials Committee meeting will
also consider a new project idea on "Strengthening Public
Security Harm Reduction Responses for the Prevention and Treatment
of Drug Abuse related HIV Transmission in Custodial and Community
Settings."
Source: UNODC
press release
|
