ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime opens in Malaysia

The 10th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC 10) and related meetings opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 29.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Amad Zahid Hamidi stated that transnational crime involves movement of people across borders and trans-border financial transactions including the involvement of transnational organised crime syndicates.

It can gravely affect the stability, security, sovereignty and public order of individual nations and the very fabric of society at all levels, he said.

The Malaysian Deputy PM also called ASEAN member countries to make critical decisions on transnational crime, especially new forms defined by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, including the illicit trades of nature and cultural heritage, wildlife, electrical and electronic waste, ozone-depleting substances and counterfeit consumer goods.

As scheduled, participants will approve and sign a Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Combating Transnational Crime and an ASEAN Plan of Actions to Combat Transnational Crime, which underscores matters necessary in effectively dealing with the emergence of new forms of transnational crime.

Following the AMMTC 10, a series of related meetings including AMMTC+3 (China, the Republic of Korea and Japan), consultation sessions with China and Japan and the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Rise of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism will take place from September 30 to October 2.

Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang is attending the event.-VNA