DUSHANBE, November 30, Asia-Plus  -- A roundtable meeting formally titled “The United Nations Convention against Corruption: Ratification and Priorities” opened at the Asia Grand Hotel in Dushanbe today. 

The event, staged by the UNDP CO Tajikistan in cooperation with Tajikistan’s Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, has brought together representatives from president’s office, UNODC international consultants, officers from the Tajik anticorruption agency, and media.  

Representatives from anticorruption agencies of Kyrgyzstan and Latvia have also been invited to attend the meeting. 

Preparedness of Tajikistan to ratify the convention and further implementation of it in Tajikistan as well as use of international experience and practice are focus of the meeting.  

The United Nations Convention against Corruption  entered into force on 14 December 2005. The Convention adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in October 2003, has been signed by 140 countries and ratified by 38.  It is the first legally binding global instrument designed to help Member States fight corruption in both the public and private sectors.

The Convention rests on four pillars: prevention and criminalization of corruption, international cooperation and asset recovery.  

Corruption has a range of negative effects on Tajikistan’s development.  Corruption inhibits economic growth, undermines the effectiveness of international assistance, weakens the population’s faith in the transition process, and exacerbates poverty.