YANGON, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will host the 9th meeting of senior officials of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on combating transnational crime in the country's capital Nay Pyi Taw next month, the local Weekly Eleven journal reported Monday.

    The three-day meeting at the Office of the Myanmar War Veterans' Association is scheduled from July 1 to 3. It will be attended by representatives of dialogue partners from China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Russia, the European Union, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) and some other international non-governmental organizations.

    Meanwhile, Myanmar has been stepping up efforts in combating human trafficking. It signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Thailand in April this year as part of the country's cooperation with neighbors in the fight.

    The areas of cooperation under the MoU cover combating all aspects of human trafficking, including prevention, protection, rehabilitation, reintegration, law enforcement, justice and developing and implementing joint action between the two countries.

    Myanmar has commended the achievements of Myanmar and Thailand along with countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) under the commit MoU as well as other regional mechanism which addresses the human trafficking problem, while Thailand is making arrangements to implement the plan of action by drafting under the MoU and combating human trafficking problem in cooperation with government departments, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies.

    Neighboring countries, with which Myanmar is cooperating, include China, India and Bangladesh, Thailand as well as the Russian Federation and Vietnam.

    After the promulgation of Myanmar's Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Law in 2005, the taking of punitive action against traffickers has stopped many cases of human trafficking, the authorities said, adding that measures are also being taken across the country to save those who fall prey to human traffickers and to enable the victims to integrate back with their society and to rehabilitate them.

    Myanmar is drafting a national-level five-year plan of eliminating human trade to step up combating the crime. The plan covers five sectors -- cooperation through the policy, prevention, taking action, protection of the victims and capacity building, according to the Central Committee for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons.

    In March 2004, Myanmar joined the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women.

    The country also signed a memorandum of understanding of six-member Greater Mekong Subregion against trafficking in persons in October 2004.