BRICS agrees to clamp down on corruption
Major developing countries adopt multilateral approach to tackling graft
A new initiative reached among the BRICS countries on combating corruption will help uphold multilateralism and advance international cooperation against corruption, China’s top discipline watchdogs said on Monday.
The BRICS Initiative on Denial of Safe Haven to Corruption was adopted at the 14th BRICS Summit held last week via video link in Beijing. BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, represents the world’s emerging markets and major developing countries.
The initiative puts forward practical solutions to address the concerns of BRICS countries and developing countries in the field of international anti-corruption, said the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, the country’s top discipline watchdogs.
To implement the anti-corruption consensus reached at this year’s summit and further build consensus among countries, the first BRICS Anti-corruption Ministerial Meeting is expected to be held in July, the watchdogs said on their website.
During the meeting, ministerial-level officials will review the anti-corruption cooperation history of the BRICS countries and explore how to deepen cooperation in areas including anti-corruption law enforcement, repatriating fugitives and recovering stolen money, they said.
Under the initiative, BRICS members agreed to commit to fighting corruption and strengthen international cooperation to bring corrupt individuals to justice and recover stolen assets.
All countries are urged to make full use of and improve their domestic laws, regulations and policies to tackle the problem, and they should respect the legal systems of other countries while practicing cooperation, the initiative said.
More efforts will be made to crack down on the transfer of corrupt assets and try to eliminate loopholes in supervision to prevent the cross-border movement of corrupt individuals and the transfer of their illegal assets, according to the initiative.
The countries said they will efficiently handle requests for criminal judicial assistance from other countries and streamline extradition procedures.
They will encourage their anticorruption, law enforcement, prosecutorial and financial intelligence departments to participate in international cooperation, according to the initiative.
The members will explore the use of new technologies for crossborder information sharing and criminal judicial assistance related to corruption and will further strengthen anti-corruption capacity building through education and training programs, according to the document.
The consensus came as China heads up the BRICS Anti-Corruption Working Group this year.
The working group was established in 2015 as an important platform to promote the sharing of anti-corruption experiences and practical cooperation. Two to three meetings are held each year.
On May 26, the BRICS Workshop on Anti-Corruption and Economic Development was held online by the National Commission of Supervision of China, bringing together over 60 participants from the governments, enterprises and academic communities of BRICS countries and related international organizations.