Vietnam prioritises counter-terrorism

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, head of the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Committee, has urged the Ministry of Public Security to coordinate with the State Bank of Vietnam to provide information and data proving Vietnam’s priority to counter terrorism and terrorist financing.

He made the request at a meeting of the committee in Hanoi on March 5 to review the evaluation of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) on Vietnam’s mechanisms to fight money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation of mass destruction weapons, at the APG’s first multilateral assessment report.

The Ministry of Public Security was tasked to update the results of the realisation of the action plan after the national risk assessment on money laundering and terrorism financing at the ministry, and prove its implementation of financial investigations and anti-terrorism activities.

The Supreme People’s Procuracy is responsible for collecting information related to 17 crimes stated in the national risk assessment report on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Deputy PM asked the Ministry of Finance to update and provide data on tax evasion and confiscation of money, assets and cross-border transfer tools at the request of the APG evaluation group, as well as typical cases of international cooperation with foreign inspection and supervision agencies in casino and securities.

According to State Bank of Vietnam Governor Le Minh Hung, Vietnam is scheduled to have a meeting with the APG evaluation group in April 2020 and defend its report at the annual APG meeting in July.