EXPLORE NEW WAYS TO ASSIST MEMBER COUNTRIES - SECY GEN

The Colombo Plan (CP) is reintroducing its initial objectives to the
member countries, Secretary General Patricia Yoon told the third year
review meeting of the Outreach/Drop-in Centres, the drug addicts
rehabilitation centres, last week.

Our motto is "planning prosperity together" and it suggests the
partnership concept aimed at social and economic development of its
member countries.

The main focus of the CP is technical cooperation among developing
countries or South South cooperation.

Through these efforts CP has been serving its member countries for 57
years, she said. She said that in the past, the economies in the Asia
Pacific region were mainly agricultural.

Today the situation has changed plans and new ways and means have to
be explored to assist member countries.

Technological empowerment and capacity building of the government
sectors of the member countries are at the top of the CP agenda today.

Sri Lanka as the host country of the CP always benefits from the CP
programs. CP has provided a large number of scholarships to develop
HR in the country, she said. In the early 1970s CP identified the
need to address the growing problem of drug abuse in the region and
established the Colombo Plan Drug Advisory Program (CPDAP) with
financial assistance from the US government.

The task of the CPDAP is to assist the governments of member
countries in formulating policies and designing programs to control
the drug problem. CPDAP mainly focused on human resources development
in all areas related to drugs, Yoon said.

The new director of the CPDAP Devendra Dutt said that drugs have
become a major threat to the region.

He said that there is a huge stockpile of opium weighing around 3,000
tonnes in Afghanistan to be converted into drugs.

This is a real threat and communities in the region should be kept
away from this danger.

The region is facing new threats posed by illicit drug production,
trafficking and abuse.

The Outreach/Drop-in centre is one of CP's innovative strategies
introduced to address the issues.

CP has set up eight centres in Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines
to support the countries in the treatment and aftercare of drug
addicts, Dutt said.