By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter


Officials and individuals indicted on charges of corruption will no longer be able to find a safe haven in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries.

At the end of the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency Symposium in Kyongju, North Kyongsang Province, Wednesday, some 400 delegates from 21 APEC member countries, as well as experts from various international organizations, agreed to increase regional cooperation on denying safe haven to people indicted for corruption.

The conference was organized by the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption (KICAC).

APEC members will also implement measures on mutual legal assistance, extradition, asset recovery and forfeiture of proceeds in corruption cases. They agreed to enhance the exchange of information among member economies and support the development of ACT (Anti-Corruption and Transparency) Training Workshops on the denial of safe havens to put an end to corruption scandals.

APEC members will strengthen cooperation for developing an ACT capacity-building program with the participation of international and regional organizations, especially the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on their anticorruption initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.

``We urge all member economies to submit annual progress reports to the ACT Task Force on their APEC anti-corruption commitments, including a more concrete roadmap for accelerating the implementation and for tracking progress,’’ said a statement adopted during the closing ceremony.

In an effort to ensure transparent and secure business environment, an anti-corruption pledge will be made by CEOs participating in this year’s APEC CEO summit in Pusan, to encourage the anti-corruption initiative, according to the statement.

The discussions during the symposium will be reviewed and followed up by the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency Experts’ Task Force for practical uses of APEC member economies.

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