Microsoft founder Bill Gates (left) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg walk onstage to announce their US$375 million global anti-smoking campaign at a press conference in New York, last Wednesday. - AP

NEW YORK (AP):

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are pooling their piles of money to pour US$375 million into a global effort to cut smoking.

The billionaire philanthropists, who have a combined worth of more than US$70 billion, said on Wednesday that the money will help efforts in developing countries where tobacco use is highest. There are more than one billion smokers worldwide.

Support projects

The US$250 million from Bloomberg and US$125 million from Gates will support projects that raise tobacco taxes, help smokers quit, ban tobacco advertising and protect nonsmokers from exposure to smoke, their foundations said. It will also aid efforts to track tobacco use and better understand tobacco control strategies.

"Bill and I want to highlight the enormity of this problem and catalyse a global movement of governments and civil society to stop the tobacco epidemic," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Bloomberg, who built his fortune from the financial information company he founded in the 1980s, is adding to an anti-smoking initiative he funded with US$125 million in 2006. That money goes towards tobacco-fighting cam-paigns in low- and middle-income countries, most specifically China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Bangladesh. The Bloomberg foundation is also conducting a survey to better understand smoking in those countries.