More than 100 senior law officers attending the three-day
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Anti-Corruption Workshop,
the first in APEC's framework, have vowed to put words into
action.
Li Yufu, vice-minister of supervision, said at the opening
ceremony: "Only by augmenting bilateral, multilateral as well as
regional and international cooperation and setting up an
anti-corruption mechanism can an effective fight against corruption
be possible."
Co-sponsored by the Chinese and United States governments the
forum highlights a number of issues including denial of safe haven,
asset recovery and extradition. These issues were "of great and
realistic significance," Li said.
Statistics from the World Bank indicate that the value of assets
which corrupt officials transfer between developed and developing
countries had reached US$1 trillion annually.
"Corruption jeopardizes the integrity of world markets,
facilitates international crime and terrorism, (and) diverts public
investment away from areas that need it most, " said Debra Wong
Yang, a senior US attorney from the Central District of
California.
No country or region should serve as a safe haven for criminals
suspected of corruption using the excuse of differences in
political or legal systems, said Dong Hai, deputy director of the
General Office of the Ministry of Supervision.
From 1993 to 2005, more than 230 Chinese fugitives were
extradited from over 30 countries with the support of the
International Criminal Police Organization, Dong said. He added
that China had repatriated several foreign criminal suspects.
To ensure the recovery of assets, Dong suggested that levels of
cooperation be increased not only between law enforcement
departments but also with auditing, financial prosecution and bank
departments.
The Chinese Government had signed mutual legal assistance
treaties in criminal matters with 39 countries and extradition
treaties with 26, said Zhang Xiaoming of the Ministry of
Justice.
Participants attending the workshop agreed that the United
Nations Convention Against Corruption, which took effect last
December 14, included principles that are critical to fighting the
crime.
By April 1, 140 countries had approved the convention and the
number of parties stood at 50, said Fujino Akiro, representative of
the Regional Center for East Asia and Pacific, United Nations
Office of Drugs and Crime.
In China, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is speeding up
legislative efforts to match the situation after it approved the
convention last October 27, Dong said.
The three-day workshop, which concludes today, is the brainchild
of President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush, who
agreed to enhance cooperation to fight corruption when attending
the APEC Summit in November 2004 in Santiago, Chile, organizers
said.
(China Daily April 26, 2006)
