A senior official on Monday called for executing an effective plan to prevent smoking which kills millions each year and affects countries' resources.

Kuwait is following the regional and international efforts to fight smoking, Assistant Under secretary for technical affairs at the Ministry of Health and chairman of the national committee for the prevention of smoking, Qais Al-Duweri, said in his opening speech at a workshop on protocols to prevent illegal tobacco distribution, held at the Sheraton Hotel on Monday.

Meanwhile, he noted that Kuwait was among the first countries to join the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Framework Convention on the Prevention of Tobacco in 2003.

The two-day workshop will focus on the protocol to fight illegal trafficking of tobacco as the main element in the Framework Convention, which was endorsed in the fifth convention of signatory countries in South Korea in 2012.

The event is held in cooperation with WHO, with the participation of different bodies involved in the protocol, including customs, commerce, industry and monetary sections in the GCC countries.