(VOVworld) – The 4^th Vietnam-China bilateral conference on cooperation in drug prevention and control opened in Hanoi on Tuesday. At the previous meeting in China in 2013, the two countries launched a joint action plan to crack down on drug-related criminals along their joint border. The police departments of 7 Vietnamese provinces and the 2 Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi have exchanged information on drug trafficking rings.

China’s cooperation and assistance has helped to prevent illegal drugs from entering Vietnam. Colonel Hoang Anh Tuyen, Deputy head of the Office of Vietnam’s Department for Crime Prevention and Drug Control, said: “We have yet to prevent the illegal transportation of heroine from abroad to Vietnam and then China as well as ecstasy from China to Vietnam. The Vietnam-China border remains a hot spot for drug-related crime. Information sharing has been slow, which resulted in less effective cooperation.”

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in drug prevention and control.