Southwest China's Yunnan Province is promoting a five-year replacement planting scheme in neighboring Myanmar and Laos in its fight to curb drug-dealing, according to the provincial commerce department.

A source with the department said the province is working with Myanmar and Laos to encourage local companies to invest in the scheme by offering initial financial assistance, low-interest bank loans and subsidies according to the scale of production.

It will also cut tariffs on imports of the products and provide preferential policies for the staff's entry and exit.

Yunnan, with more than 4,000 kilometers of border with Myanmar,Thailand and Laos, is a neighbor of the "Golden Triangle", a notorious drug production area. It easily falls victim to drug-dealing and has been designated by the Chinese authorities asa target area for cracking down on the influx of drugs.

It began in the early 1990s to help plant cash crops to replace opium poppy in Myanmar and northern Laos and the practice has proved to be an effective way to control narcotics.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2006)