APEC Anticorruption

APEC Leaders Agree to Crack Down on Corruption; Agree to Deny Safe Haven to Officials and Individuals Guilty of Public Corruption

The White House on November 21 issued a fact sheet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Santiago, Chile, where President Bush and other APEC leaders launched the "Santiago Commitment to Fight Corruption and Ensure Transparency" and the "APEC Course of Action on Fighting Corruption and Ensuring Transparency."

Leaders agreed to the implementation, beginning in 2005, of the concrete actions outlined in the COA, including that APEC economies: take all appropriate steps, consistent with their different status, towards ratification of, or accession to, and implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC); strengthen effective measures to prevent and fight corruption and ensure transparency; deny safe haven to officials and individuals guilty of public corruption, those who corrupt them, and their assets; fight both public and private sector corruption; promote public-private partnerships; nurture cooperation to combat corruption in the region; and implement, in accordance with the fundamental principles of each economy's legal system, the concrete actions contained under the item "From Santiago to Seoul".

President Bush joined leaders from Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, and South Korea in helping APEC developing economies fight corruption through the newly-established Anticorruption and Transparency (ACT) Capacity Building Program