Colombia follows late Thai King's path

BANGKOK, August 28 (TNA) - Colombia is following late His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej's path on replacing a narcotic crop with economic crops as a solution to drug problems. Government Spokesman Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd told journalists of the update on August 27, saying that a Colombian high-level government delegation informed Thai officials of the decision while visiting royal projects, including the Doi Tung Project and a forestation project in Chiang Rai Province in the Thai North recently. The spokesman said Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha is pleased that the Colombian government is applying the late and revered Thai monarch's projects to the development of economic crop areas in lieu of coca plantations in the South American nation. According to the spokesman, the Colombian delegation has learned that Thailand has successfully encouraged hill tribes in the Thai North, through the royally-initiated projects, to grow economic crops to earn their living legally with better quality of life and more educational opportunities, instead of opium poppy, and has been, thus, praised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for the success. "Colombia has faced a problem similar to Thailand in the past that there have been more than 150,000 hectares of coca plantation areas (1 hectar = 100 acres) which are used for the production of cocaine, a kind of narcotics mostly produced in Latin America. So, the Colombian high-level government delegates have agreed to adopted late His Majesty the King's initiation to turn the coca plantations into economic crop plantations in their country", the spokesman explained. The spokesman stated that the Indonesian, the Myanmar and the Afghanistan governments have also applied the same royal Thai projects to the development of economic crop areas in their countries. (TNA)