Chemical industrialists in Myanmar agreed with the government on Tuesday to cooperate in curbing illicit manufacture of drugs of abuse.

The draft agreement was reached between the two parties at a two-day workshop, sponsored by the Supervisory Committee for Controlled Chemicals of Myanmar and the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODC), according to a statement issued at the end of the workshop.

Under the draft agreement, Myanmar is to establish a national cooperative committee to supervise controlled precursor chemicals, to adopt the draft on code of conduct of each chemical enterprise in prevention of chemical abuse and to create awareness of the important role of the chemical industrialists by launching DVD training programs.

Myanmar is a signatory to the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the country formed the Supervisory Committee for Controlled Chemicals in 1998. Again in 2002, 25 kinds of precursor chemicals were prohibited and the rules for supervision of controlled precursor chemicals was enacted in 2004.

Meanwhile, Myanmar and the UNODC has also been cooperating in the survey of opium production in Myanmar since 2001. According to their latest joint survey report, the opium poppy cultivation area in Myanmar stood 44,240 hectares in 2004, declining sharply by 29 percent from 2003 and 73 percent from 1996, while opium production was 370 tons in 2004, dropping by 54 percent compared with 2003.