BANGKOK, Nov 28 — Malaysia reaffirms its commitment to further strengthening Asean Plus Three cooperation in combating terrorism and transnational crime, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.
Through the implementation of the five-year Asean Plus Three Cooperation Work Plan 2018-2022, he said, the cooperation would focus on the areas of anti-money laundering, eradicating people smuggling and combating sea piracy.
“Malaysia will continue to consult the Plus Three Countries (China, Japan and South Korea) and Asean Secretariat on these three components in terms of funding and organising of programmes that will mutually benefit law enforcement agencies of Asean member states,” he said when delivering the country’s statement at the Asean +3 Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC) here.
The 13th AMMTC is attended by 10 Asean member countries while AMTCC Plus Three involves Asean and its dialogue partners (China, Japan and Korea) and Asean Secretariat (ASEC) to discuss transnational crime including arms smuggling, terrorism, money laundering, sea piracy, people smuggling, trafficking in persons, international economic crime, cybercrime, drug trafficking and trafficking of wildlife and timber.
To improve its anti-money laundering efforts, Malaysia through its recently launched Financial Intelligence Network would improve the submission of Suspicious Transaction Report (STRs) for necessary investigation and prosecution, Muhyiddin said.
“We hope this network could also forge cooperation with Plus Three countries especially in intelligence sharing as well as in capacity building of Asean law enforcement officials in countering terrorist financing,” he said.
On combating people smuggling and trafficking in persons, Muhyiddin said Malaysia pledged to work harder to upgrade its position to Tier 1 of the United States Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report through strengthened national policies as well as regional and international collaboration.
He said that in March 2019, Malaysia introduced a Special Court for Anti-Trafficking in Persons that is dedicated to look into the cases more effectively, thus ensuring the welfare of victims is well taken care of until they are repatriated to their countries of origin.
“Malaysia has also engaged Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as part of a smart partnership for the care and protection of trafficked victims.
“To support this partnership, the government channelled a sum of RM1.4 million as financial assistance to two NGOs to run three shelter homes in 2017 and for the care and protection of trafficked victims,” he said.
As a way forward, he added that Malaysia would host a Regional Meeting on December 10 in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the progress and challenges in the implementation of the three-year Asean SOMTC Work Programme to Combat People Smuggling 2019-2021.
Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said Malaysia is looking at enhancing regional cooperation in promoting safety and security within Asean in addressing sea piracy.
“Our commitment is to safeguard our waters from perpetrators that create threats at sea especially in the Straits of Malacca,” he said, adding that Malaysia would organise a workshop on maritime security in the first quarter of next year and implement several other awareness projects with details to be shared next year. — Bernama
