Photo credit, the Office of Narcotic Control Board, Thailand ©

On behalf of BMZ, the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD) attended a meeting on assistance for the “Plan for Tackling Illicit Drug Production and Trafficking in the Golden Triangle” on 2 March 2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The meeting was organised by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), Thailand.

The Golden Triangle covering Thailand, Myanmar and Laos PDR is heavily affected by the production and trafficking of illicit drugs. Regional and international cooperation is needed to tackle the drug-related problems in the region. The aim of the meeting was to present the “Plan for Tackling Illicit Drug Production and Trafficking in the Golden Triangle” to possible donor countries and agencies. The plan is implemented by Thailand in cooperation with Myanmar and Laos. Delegations from around 20 countries/agencies from the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and beyond participated in the meeting.

The Ambassador of the Federal Government of Germany to Thailand, H.E. Peter Prügel, highlighted in his speech the excellent German-Thai cooperation in the field of drug policy. Starting with the Thai-German Highland Development Programme (1981 –1998), the more than three decades long cooperation between the two countries has remained very close. He introduced GPDPD as a recent and outstanding programme dealing with multidimensional issues of the world drug problem – once again with close German-Thai cooperation. Pilot activities of GPDPD will be carried out in Myanmar from 2017 onwards, while GPDPD and the Thai Mae Fah Luang Foundation have been jointly implementing training missions for third countries at the Doi Tung Development Project since 2016.