Taiwan is seeking to bolster cooperation with international partners to combat transnational crime, Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) yesterday told the opening ceremony of the International Forum on Police Cooperation.
An estimated 2,600 people from 31 countries participated in the three-day forum in person or by videoconference, including experts and senior officials in law enforcement, interior affairs and foreign affairs, the National Police Agency said in a news release.
This year’s forum focuses on combating transnational crime, featuring two keynote speeches and four seminars on topics such as cybercrime, telecom fraud, human trafficking, drug crime, money laundering and organized crime, it said.
Photo: CNA
International Association of Chiefs of Police president John Letteney said that the body’s “partnership with the National Police Agency here in Taiwan has never been stronger.”
“In a world where information is spreading quickly, it is critical now more than ever, for public-safety officials to work across jurisdictions to provide truth transparency and justice,” Letteney said.
He underlined the importance of information sharing among law enforcement agencies worldwide, which allows all parties to collectively evaluate, adapt, implement and analyze promising practices.
Since 2018, international experts at the annual forum have held in-depth discussions on cross-border crime, shared experience and intelligence, and learned from each other’s investigative skills in an effort to facilitate joint crime-fighting operations, Cheng said.
As a transportation hub in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan studies cross-border crime developments and trends, from drugs, money laundering and human trafficking to emerging telecommunications fraud, he said.
The Cabinet has passed amendments to five pieces of legislation to tackle fraud, including the Criminal Code, the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法), the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act (證券投資信託及顧問法), he said.
As digital currencies have been increasingly used in cross-border money laundering in the past few years, Taiwan hopes to foster better cooperative relationships with international partners to aid in tracking illegal money flows, Cheng said.
Taiwan is willing to fulfill its international responsibilities and be the best security partner for other countries, he added.
The forum can help countries bolster partnerships to combat crime, Cheng said, adding that Taiwan would continue to seek cooperation with partners worldwide such as by signing mutual legal assistance pacts.
Taiwan worked with law enforcement agencies in the US to uncover large-scale drug smuggling cases in October last year, and in July resolved Cambodia’s largest drug smuggling case this year alongside US and Cambodian law enforcement agencies, Vice Minister of the Interior Wu Tang-an (吳堂安) said.
These were the best examples of international crime-fighting cooperation, Wu said.
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