Saturday, July 21, 2012

Nepal to represent South Asia in APG


The Asia/Pacific Group (APG) has selected Nepal as the representative of South Asia in its Steering Group.
"The 15th annual plenary of APG has selected Nepal in the Steering Group from South Asia for a one-year term," said deputy governor of the central bank Maha Prasad Adhikari, who took part in the APG meeting in Brisbane on July 16-20.
Earlier, Bangladesh had represented South Asia that includes eight countries –– Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives.
Similarly, Indonesia has been selected to represent the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The APG has also accepted Nepal's request to keep the country under regular follow up instead of enhanced follow up due to its improved performance in fighting against the flow of dirty money.
The country has been spared from the heavy burden of frequent reporting due to its continuous reforms in fighting money laundering during the last one year.
The Nepali delegation included officials from the Law Ministry, Financial Information Unit under the central bank, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, newly formed AML Department, Nepal Police, besides the central bank deputy governor.
Nepal became a member of the APG in June 2002. From its original 13 founding members, APG now consists of 41 active members making it the largest Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style regional body in the world.
Last July, the 14th annual meeting of APG had approved Nepal’s mutual evaluation report in implementing international standards to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Nepal was recommended a slew of reforms last year and this week's enhanced follow up approved the reforms and accepted the country for a regular follow up instead of an enhanced follow up.
An international organisation, APG, is regionally focused and has 40 members and a number of international and regional observers including the UN, IMF, FATF, Asian Development Bank and World Bank, and 10 additional members — Australia, Canada, India, China, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States — of the APG are also members of the FATF.

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