Yau made the remark at the opening ceremony of the second Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao conference on policy to tackle drug abuse and trafficking.

In view of the rapid increase in human and cargo traffic between the three places, trilateral cooperation in the fight against cross-boundary drug abuse and trafficking has become increasingly important, Yau said.

Since the drug problem is virtually borderless, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will maintain close liaison with Guangdong and Macao authorities and work toward the common goal of building a drug-free society, Yau added.

"Over the years, Hong Kong has adopted a multi-pronged approach, namely, legislation, law enforcement, preventive education and publicity, treatment and rehabilitation as well as external cooperation to combat the drug problem, said Commissioner for Narcotics Clarie Lo, who also attended the conference.

According to Lo, the Hong Kong Customs and the Mainland authorities launched in 2002 the "parallel enforcement actions" for eight times to curb cross-border crimes including drug abuse and trafficking.

There were a total of 17,868 drug abusers reported to the Hong Kong Central Registry of Drug Abuse (CRDA) in 2002, a drop of 3.5 percent compared to 18,511 the previous year.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2003)