OPENING REMARKS
Director MORINAGA TaroDistinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to announce the opening of the Fifteenth
Regional Seminar on Good Governance for Southeast Asian Countries.
We sincerely welcome all of you to this significant forum which is taking place in an
online format. Due to the disruptions caused by the current pandemic, we have, very
unfortunately, made the difficult decision to postpone all international training courses in
Fiscal Year 2021. However, thanks to the advancement of technology, it is our great
pleasure to be able to continue to host this seminar despite the pandemic.
Since 2007, this seminar has been an exceptional opportunity for criminal justicepractitioners in Southeast Asian countries to share our experiences in pursuit of theeradication of corruption in this region and beyond. The seminar has been co-hosted by
UNAFEI and participating countries, and the host country rotates every two years: it was
first held in Thailand, and then the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Viet Nam, andJapan again.
Over these fifteen years, we have discussed many important issues dealing with anticorruption legislation and criminal justice practices in this region. This time, in our threeday discussion, we will focus on “Effective International Cooperation for CombatingCorruption”.
As corruption has become increasingly transnational, countries increasingly rely oninternational cooperation to gather information and evidence. The United Nations
Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) devotes one full chapter to “internationalcooperation”; however, many of the participating countries face challenges in fully
implementing those provisions. In particular, in the field of mutual legal assistance (MLA),
practical obstacles and challenges remain, such as the lack of knowledge about the laws ofrequested counties and the lack of knowledge about formal and informal procedures forrequesting and obtaining MLA. These challenges hinder the realization of prompt anduseful collection of evidence and information. One of the keys to overcoming theseobstacles and challenges lies in sharing practical knowledge and experience, as well asbuilding mutual understanding and trust. Thus, the aim of this Seminar is to share anddiscuss legal frameworks for the collection of information and evidence in the participating
countries based on actual cases.
To all of the distinguished participants, I would also like to thank you for taking
valuable time away from your work to make precious contributions to this seminar. I canassure you that all of us will learn from each other and that will put us further on the path
toward eliminating corruption.
In this seminar, UNAFEI has continued its practice of inviting participants from one or
two criminal justice organizations from each country. And as I said before, some of these-9--9-organizations co-hosted previous seminars. I believe this system establishes not only apersonal network among participants but also an organizational network as well.
I look forward to seeing this seminar provide a useful forum to exchange expertise andexperience in our common endeavour against corruption, contributing further to thepromotion of good governance in Southeast Asia.
Thank you very much for your attention.

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