The Agency Against Corruption (AAC) held the “Asia-Pacific Exchange in Anti-Corruption Activities between the Public and Private Sectors” on June 25, June 27-28, 2017 for the establishment of and connection with an international cross-border anti-corruption network and the reinforcement of international cooperation in the implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Transparency International (TI) and its branch organizations in Asia-Pacific were invited to the event by Transparency International Chinese Taipei. This was the first time that Taiwan held an event for the exchange in anti-corruption activities with international non-governmental organizations. There were 38 guests from 17 countries in the event. AAC shared the important policies of anti-corruption through an international conference of anti-corruption and the visit of government agencies. In addition, AAC also worked in conjunction with the Tainan City Government and Taipei City Government to introduce the guests with major policies of transparency in anti-corruption and the experience of the regional governments in anti-corruption.

An international conference of anti-corruption was held on June 25 at the International Conference Hall of the College of Management at Shih Hsin University. Premier Lai was invited to address the conference. He mentioned that clean politics is an international common language. As such, Taiwan responds to the idea of Transparency International positively. The government has made efforts in the pursuit of clean politics, including the establishment of a designated body under the Ministry of Justice- the Agency Against Corruption, for administering anti-corruption affairs in 2011. In addition, our government also institutionalized the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in the country in 2015 and pronounced the idea of “Care, Prevention, Protection” as the gravity of anti-corruption works with the care of government officials as the beginning and help them to avoid breaching the law. The policy also serves to protect government officials with assistance to deter the intervention and interference of improper external forces so as to achieve the goal of protecting the people, society and the country. Further, Premier Lai also mentioned his experiences in the launch of the “Little Sister Yen Civic Education on the Rule of Law Program” jointly with Transparency International Chinese Taipei, Prosecutors Office of Tainan District Court, and AAC when he was Mayor of Tainan City. This was the first attempt to make anti-corruption education started with people at a very young age. In addition, case study on anti-corruption was shared with the administrative units through the “Anti-Corruption” campaign so that they could review themselves and share the experience of success through discussion, and exchange the ideas with the guests.

The agenda of the anti-corruption conference covered the keynote speech delivered the Chairperson Delia Ferreira Rubio of Transparency International, speech on the advocacy of anti-corruption work in Taiwan and further action to be taken delivered by Director-General Chu of AAC. He also introduced to guests the organizational structure and specific feature of the AAC, the effort of anti-corruption work and gearing up with the international community. In addition, Director Peng Chen-Sheng of the Department of Public Works at Taipei City Government also delivered a speech titled “Open Government and Administrative Transparency”. He shared his experience with the audience and guests in the case study on the pipelines and information center of the road system of Taipei in the operation, the invitation to bidding and the mechanism of material testing. It is expected that the representatives of Transparency International will visit AAC on June 27, and participate in the evaluation of the English speech contest of Little Sister Yen Education of the Rule of Law organized by Tainan City Government, and the discussion on the minutes of anti-corruption works on June 28.

There were 250 participants in this event, including Chairperson Delia Ferreira Rubio, Director A. J Brown, and CEO Patricia Moreira Sanchez of Transparency International, Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-San, Councilor Jan Chung-Yuan of the Examination Yuan, President Wu Yung-Chien of Shih Hsin University, Director-General Hsu Jen-Hui of Transparency International Chinese Taipei, Chairman Wu Hsiu-Kuang of Cross Boundary Management Educational Foundation, Director-General Chu Chia-Chi of AAC, Deputy Director-General Chen Rong-Chou of AAC, Chief Secretary Tseng Chao-Kai of AAC, scholars and experts in the field, practitioners in audit and anti-corruption.