The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering will assist Vietnam in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), during a working visit to Vietnam in early February, a high-level delegation of APG had working sessions with the SBV and relevant agencies on the implementation of the national action plan on fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

APG experts recognised Vietnam ’s efforts in the field, in particular the legal documents guiding the fight, such as the Finance Ministry Circular 148/2010/TT-BTC dated Sept. 24, 2010, the Construction Ministry’s Circular 12/2011/TT-BXD dated Sept. 1, 2011 and the State Bank’s Circular 41/2011/TT-NHNN dated Dec. 15, 2011.

They recommended that Vietnam focus on issuing laws on preventing and fighting money laundering and terrorism, putting in place mechanisms to freeze funds that are used to finance terrorism, and boosting international cooperation. The delegation also pledged to consider Vietnam ’s needs for technical assistance to fight money laundering and financing of terrorism in order to seek donors for Vietnam in this area.

Vietnam became the 34 th member of APG in May 2007. However, following an APG’s appraisal in 2008, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering put Vietnam in the list of countries lacking an effective mechanism for preventing and fighting money laundering and financing terrorism, thus subject to monitoring of the FATF International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG)./.