The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has received six automatic drug detection devices from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
This is the first time the DNC has obtained such devices.
KOICA’s Country Director Joe Hyan-Gue handed over the devices and 29 types of electrical equipment along with five vehicles for DNC operations to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal during a program at the DNC headquarters in Dhaka on Monday afternoon.
The equipment was given under a joint project undertaken by the DNC and KOICA for the eradication of illicit drugs and development of advanced management through information technology.
According to DNC officials, KOICA provided some 150 sets of computer and related devices, such as scanner and printers, which would bring their operational activities under one network.
DNC Assistant Director (Common Services) Shamim Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that the six automatic drug detection devices would be used in six different division offices. But the divisions are yet to be selected.
After the equipment is set up, KOICA will also provide technical assistance, he added.
Shamim added that the DNC is in the process of buying more machinery, including similar devices, which they expect to receive soon.
At the program, DNC Director General (DG) Mohammed Jamal Uddin Ahmed said this equipment from KOICA will help the department render its 37 services more effectively.
Full implementation of the DNC’s $4 million budget will also be completed within 2019, he added.
He said: “Our narcotics testing laboratory in Dhaka will be equipped with modern facilities soon, while we will set up another lab in Chittagong using this new equipment.”
Joe Hyan-Gue said the primary purpose of the project is to strengthen the DNC’s administrative capacity by establishing a computer-based infrastructure to efficiently carry out its activities.
Addressing the ceremony, Home Minister Kamal said the new equipment would allow the DNC to work more efficiently and identify narcotics more easily.
He stressed that the government’s ongoing war on drugs, which started in May, will continue until the out of control drugs problem is brought under control.