Officials at Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on Wednesday said that Taiwan’s efforts to promote transparency in the private and public sectors had to good results.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that Taiwan had advanced in implementing measures to fight corruption, and prosecute public officials suspected of bribery, financial fraud and money laundering.
Taiwan received positive ratings and praise for its progress from international agencies in the past few years, he added, referring to the result of an evaluation by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering in June last year.
The group promoted Taiwan to the highest category, based on an international peer review on government policies and effectiveness to control money laundering, illicit international financial transactions, terrorist financing and financial securities crimes, among others, Tsai said.
Legislators are working on policies to safeguard whistle-blowers and improve an anti-corruption reporting mechanism in the private sector, Tsai said.
“Rooting out corruption and ensuring transparency in government and business are of utmost importance for Taiwan to strive for economic growth and become more competitive internationally,” he said.
“Right now, the Ministry of Justice is prioritizing preventative measures against corruption, bribery and financial fraud. It is better to prevent these crimes and root out the bad elements than to prosecute them after they happened,” Tsai said.
Citing a January report by Transparency International, Tsai said that Taiwan moved up three spots in the organization’s Corruption Perception Index, ranking 28th worldwide with a score of 65, trailing New Zealand (87), Singapore (85), Australia (77), Hong Kong (76) and Japan (73) in the Asia-Pacific region.
To fight corruption, bribery and other illicit practices, ministry officials said they would hold two more Enterprise Integrity Forums in cooperation with the Financial Supervisory Commission.
For this month’s event, it has invited domestic financial services providers, insurance companies, banks, and securities and investment firms, while for the event on Sept. 2, it would welcome foreign companies and their representative offices in Taiwan, alongside small and medium-sized domestic enterprises, the MOJ said, adding that the forums are part of a series that it started last year.
This year’s first forum on July 14 was focused on companies in Taiwan’s international trading sector and included transportation, storage and customs service providers, it said.
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