The Agency Against Corruption (AAC) invited the anti-corruption heads from the countries with full diplomatic relations in Central America to Taiwan through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from April 23-27, 2018. This invitation aims at the proper implementation of the requirement of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in the reinforcement of international cooperation and the policy of the Ministry of Justice in entering into cooperation agreements with state signatories, and is the very first time that Taiwan is engaged in sharing and exchanges with countries in full diplomatic relation on anti-corruption. AAC shared the experience of the regulation of anti-corruption of Taiwan with the representatives from countries with full diplomatic relation through conference setting, and also worked in conjunction with Taipei City Government, Tainan City Government, and the Customs Administration of Ministry of Finance to introduce the policy of transparency in anti-corruption to the representatives of countries with full diplomatic relation with a view of furthering the opportunity for cooperation and exchange in the future.

The visit lasted 5 days under the joint hosting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AAC. The representatives from countries with full diplomatic relations visited the President on the morning of April 24. AAC engaged in sharing and exchanges with the representatives from countries with the full diplomatic relation on the topic of “The system and pursuit of the avoidance of the conflict of interest for the public officials in Taiwan” on April 25. Both sides introduced the summary of their own regulations governing the avoidance of the conflict of interests for public officials, the cases of offenses, and legal effect on punishment and the future action to be taken on the system in the future, and share the point of view of each other. In the afternoon of the same day, we introduced to the representatives from the countries with full diplomatic relations our effort in legislation for the protection of informants of corruption, a topic that attracted much of the attention of the world lately. It was followed by a visit to the pipeline and information center of the road system in Taipei so that the guests could understand the information management of the road system in Taipei. They learned that the people of Taipei just need to download an APP for access to the real-time image of road construction and related information on the construction. Road construction management is fully transparent, meaning that the work is monitored by the public. This helps to reduce the risk of hidden human factors on unethical practice substantially.

The representatives from countries with full diplomatic relations were arranged to visit the “Ancient Capital” of Tainan City on April 26. They visited the Acting Mayor of Tainan City and engaged in discussion with level I police officers of Tainan Police Station on “The Minutes of Anti-Corruption Work in Police Administration”. They shared the experience in different patterns of illegal practices in the police and discussed the methods for the prevention of such practices. In the afternoon of the same day, they visited the museum whose collections are donated from successful entrepreneurs for the government. This is a model of cooperation between the government and the private sector- the Chi Mei Museum.

On April 27, AAC worked in conjunction with the Keelung Port of Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance, to introduce to the representatives from countries with full diplomatic relation the world champion of transparency of customs rated by World Economic Forum (WEF) on “2014 Global Enabling Trade Index” in the aspect of the “Border Administration” system. In addition, the improvement of our customs with the introduction of proper detection equipment and the training of detector dogs were also introduced to the guests for sharing our experience in the upgrade of detection and investigation capacity to fight to smuggle.

Among the guests were Chief Prosecutor and Minister of Justice of Guatemala Thelma Aldana, Chief Prosecutor and Minister of Justice of Belize Michael George Peyrefitte, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Nicaragua Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Special Chief  Prosecutor of Government Transparency and Anti-Corruption of Honduras Anibal Fedrico Izaguirre Maradiaga, Director of Administrative Corruption Investigation of Chief Prosecutor Office of Dominican Republic Laura Guerrero Pelletier, and Advisor to the Minister of Justice of Guatemala Mnogine, a total of six. Chief Prosecutor of Guatemala Thelma Aldana was formerly the Speaker of the Congress of Guatemala. Another two ministers have visited Taiwan before while all the others are the first time to Taiwan.

The AAC makes friends with the countries of full diplomatic relations with the Republic of China in Central America with our anti-corruption policies and practices with a view to entering into related cooperation agreements with these state parties and building up the partnership. This helps to share the experience with each other on practical works through the reinforcement in cooperation in “personnel visits:, “sharing and exchange of intelligence in law enforcement”, “learning from the works of anti-corruption”, or “training of professional skills and technical assistance”. The parties will understand better the legal systems of each other and get to know each other better. Under the joint effort of both sides, anti-corruption could be strengthened. Accordingly, the international rating of anti-corruption on both sides will also be improved with the friendship between the parties further strengthened.