TAM: MSAR determined to help raise financial safety of Asia-Pacific region

The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam, has assured that Macau will reinforce its efforts in contributing to the Asia-Pacific region’s financial safety.
Addressing the audience of the 17th Annual Meeting of the Asia/Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, which took place in Macau last week, Francis Tam recalled that Macau and China enacted laws against money laundering and terrorist financing back in 2006.
He said this was “an important milestone demonstrating Macau’s determination to fight against these serious crimes.”
Over 350 delegates from 41 jurisdictions travelled to Macau for the event. The president of the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), Mr Roger Wilkins, reiterated the need to further engage the private sector on financial safety matters.
“Stakeholder consultation should be viewed as an opportunity to leverage private sector expertise and work together in the pursuit of common goals. This is particularly important given the crucial role the private sector plays in implementing the FATF Standards across the globe,” he said.
Delegates discussed issues ranging from the key challenges of the new FATF standards set to identify, understand and mitigate risk; to voluntary tax amnesty and asset repatriation schemes, among others.
It was also revealed that the APG will be admitting new observer members throughout the year. The APG co-chair and deputy commissioner at the Australian Federal Police, Mr Andrew Colvin, stressed that the five new observers will be important partners in APG’s efforts to deter money laundering and trends in financing terrorism. CP