HANOI, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Smoking has annually killed over 40,000 people in Vietnam in recent years, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times quoted a WHO survey as reporting on Friday.

    According to the survey by the World Health Organization (WHO),80 percent of Vietnamese lung cancer patients contract the disease because of smoking. The country spent more than 800 billion Vietnamese dong (50 million U.S. dollars) treating sufferers from smoking-related diseases.

    Local smokers annually spend nearly 10 trillion Vietnamese dong(625 million dollars) on cigarettes, said the newspaper. Over 500 million cigarette packs have been annually smuggled into Vietnam in recent years, equaling 10-15 percent of the country's total production.

    Vietnam is trying to reduce smoker population by imposing higher taxes on tobacco products, restricting investment in cigarette production, raising public awareness, banning cigarette advertisements, and increasing the number of no-smoking public places.