Deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) Pitaya Jinawat said Burmese anti-drug officials led by director-general of Burma’s Police Brig-Gen Khin Yi, will visit the Doi Tung Development Project in Chiang Rai next month to study the opium eradication scheme and crop substitution project.

After that, the two countries will sign a formal Memorandum of Understanding, at a ceremony tentatively set for next month.

The drug eradication cooperation comes under the bilateral framework on drug prevention and suppression of the two countries.

Run by the Mae Fa Luang Foundation, the Doi Tung Development Project has been successful in encouraging hilltribe people in the North to grow cash crops instead of opium for decades.

The MoU will pave the way for cooperation between Thai and Burmese officials to introduce an addictive drugs eradication and alternative development project in Burma, Mr Pitaya said.

Besides development projects, Thailand has worked closely with Burma on exchanging information such as names of drug suspects and locations of drug factories along the Thai-Burmese border.

Mr Pitaya also expressed concern over an increase in female and child drugs couriers in the North.

“More women are entering the drug trafficking business because we don’t have enough female officials to search women and children suspected of carrying drugs,” he said, adding that more female police should be recruited to strengthen drug suppression operations.