Bangladesh seeks int'l support for recovery of ill-gotten resources

FE Team | Published: November 03, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Bangladesh called upon the international community to provide their support to the country for recovery of ill-gotten resources that remained abroad.
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations (UN) Ismat Jahan made this call while she was delivering a statement Thursday at the Economic and Financial Committee of the UN General Assembly on a debate on the UN Convention against Corruption, reports UNB.
She said these resources were gained at a huge cost to the economy of Bangladesh and the release of such would greatly contribute to the ongoing national development efforts, particularly in addressing poverty, malnutrition, diseases and illiteracy, some of the key targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
She commented that like many developing countries in a similar milieu, addressing corruption remained a big challenge for Bangladesh.
She informed the UN that the present government, since assuming office early this year, made the 'campaign against corruption' among its topmost priority agenda.
She said that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had been revamped with full autonomy and resources.
She also enumerated the ongoing reform measures in the country.
Ismat Jahan expressed her concern that the process of repatriation of these assets entailed huge legal and procedural complexities.
She expressed the opinion that the complex and lengthy proceedings often rendered asset recovery efforts costly and hazardous, which a country like Bangladesh could ill-afford.
The ambassador also expressed her concern that despite the entry into force of the Convention on Corruption, it had not yet yielded concrete results.
She underscored that since asset recovery was a big challenge for developing countries, a global partnership and cooperation were necessary to combat the transfer of proceeds of corruption abroad and to facilitate repatriation of those assets to their countries of origin.
She also emphasised the need for stopping the smooth channels of transferring illegal assets and their safe custodies in developed and developing countries.
Ismat Jahan expressed her satisfaction over the recent decision of the establishment of an 'intergovernmental working group on asset recovery' by the states parties of the Convention and Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) initiative jointly launched by the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) and the World Bank.
She expressed her hope that these initiatives would generate visible results.