In order to promote the value of anti-corruption, continue to deepen exchanges between public and private sectors, demonstrate the importance of  enterprise integrity and legal compliance, and actively improve administrative efficiency and transparency measures to streamline administration and provide convenience for the general public, the Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan (referred to as the EPA) on August 19, 2022 organized and held the “2022 Joint Environmental Law Enforcement- Enterprise Exchange and Integrity Forum”, and the Ministry of Justice was invited to participate in order to implement the “United Nations Convention Against Corruption” on the importance of anti-corruption in the private sectors, and to create the opportunities for cooperation among public and private sectors to build an anti-corruption partnership.

The forum kicked off with speeches by Minister Tsai Ching-hsiang of the Ministry of Justice and Director Chang Tzu-jing of EPA, followed by  Chief Secretary Chian Mei-hui of Agency Against Corruption(AAC), Chief Sustainability Officer(CSO) Liu Jing-jing of Acer Incorporated, and Manager Yang Hung-long of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. They gave respective keynote speeches on topics such as “unlawful profit-seeking and convenience for public”, “new corporate thinking” and “resource recycling development”, etc.

In order to deepen the effect, the forum exchange was divided into morning and afternoon sessions. In the morning session, the Deputy Director Yeh Yi-chang of Transparency International Chinese Taipei presided over the discussion on topics such as “ Enterprise Integrity and Sustainable Management” and “Differentiating Unlawful Profit-seeking and Convenience for Public- Cooperation between Enterprises and Government”, in which a multi-perspective discussion was held among  Chief Secretary Chian Mei-hui, CSO Liu, Jing-jing and Director Chian Hui-zhen of the Department of Supervision Evalution & Dispute Resolution of EPA. In the afternoon session, Counselor Chiang Tzu-nong of the Environmental Protection Administration presided over the discussion on topics such as “Promotion of Environmental Protection Works and Legal Compliance” and “Streamlining Administration to Reach Win-Win Achievement”. 

In his speech, Minister Tsai Ching-hsiang of the Ministry of Justice mentioned that although Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, we still follow the content of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and promote the public and private sectors to cooperate in anti-corruption-related actions. Efforts were made to promote the deepening of forum activities related to “Enterprise Integrity” and “Legal Compliance”. This year, the Ministry of Justice requested the AAC to integrate the openness and transparent spirit and successful operation of the “Integrity Platform for Government Procurement” to hold a symposium on “Breaking the Myth of Unlawful Profit-seeking and Convenience for Public” nationwide to enable public servants to actively provide convenient services without any concern of breaking laws. By combining various competent authorities, a “Integrity Platform for Enterprise Services” has been established to provide enterprises with consulting services on the differentiation of legal compliance such as “unlawful profit-seeking and convenience for public” to allow both parties to communicate and work together to resolve problems, achieve the goals of streamlined administration and convenience for the general public,  Enterprise integrity, public-private cooperation, and sustainable development, thereby creating a more transparent, efficient, reassuring, clean and high-quality investment environment.

Director-General Chang Tzu-jing of EPA mentioned that it is required to face up to the challenges of current environmental changes, and regard the effective implementation of environmental protection as an important goal of future governance. This forum offers a good opportunity to promote interdisciplinary connection among environmental protection, clean government and enterprises. In the future, the promotion of several environmental protection policies will depend on close cooperation between the public and private sectors.

The forum invites public and private sectors to communicate with each other, understand the practical needs of the industry, clarify the doubts of the industry about compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations, and improve integrity governance and legal compliance. In the future, AAC along with various agencies will continue to provide measures to streamline administration and convenience, reach consensus between the public and private sectors through deepened exchanges, and achieve a win-win situation for the sustainable development of the nation and enterprises.