EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR
COMBATING CORRUPTION
Nguyen Quang Dung *I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, corruption in Viet Nam is still complicated. Anti-corruption is a very
important mission, related to the development of the country and the people's trust, but it isextremely difficult and complicated because it involves material interests, money and fame
related to selfish individualism. Through regional and international cooperation, Viet Nam
will learn and exchange experiences to apply in Viet Nam and improve its ability to fightcorruption crimes with foreign elements as well, due to Viet Nam’s deep integration into
the global economy. Therefore, the State of Viet Nam has done and promoted international
cooperation in anti-corruption, but there is still much work that must be done in the longterm. Viet Nam's participation in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption is thecorrect policy, affirming the strategic vision of the State of Viet Nam for combating
corruption. Viet Nam is an active participant in drafting and signing the United Nations
Convention Against Corruption. According to the decision of ratification in 2009, Viet
Nam officially became a party to this Convention, obligated to implement the commitments
expressed in the provisions of the Convention, except for those declared reservations. Over
more than 10 years, a comprehensive assessment of the results achieved and outstanding
problems in the implementation of the Convention is essential, creating a basis for
proposing appropriate solutions for the implementation of the Convention, practicallycontributing to improving the effectiveness of our country's anti-corruption work in thenext period.
The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (referred to as the Convention) is
the first international instrument to enter into force for members on a global scale in thefield of anti-corruption. The Convention consists of 8 chapters and 71 articles providing forpreventive and sanctioning measures, international cooperation and recovery of corrupt
assets in order to create a comprehensive legal framework to promote the fight against
corruption in all members states. The negotiation, signing and adoption of the Convention
affirmed the determination and high consensus for efforts to address the challenge posedby corruption for all countries. As of 6 February 2020, the Convention has 187 members,of which 181 are Member States of the United Nations (193 countries are Member Statesof the United Nations). The Convention is increasingly becoming one of the universal
treaties as it is referenced in many bilateral and multilateral international treaties, especiallyin the anti-corruption commitments in free trade agreements.
As State parties of the Convention, these countries, including Viet Nam, are obligatedto perform certain actions, such as building and bettering an appropriate institutional
system with the requirements of the Convention (enhancing compliance, especially for
mandatory requirements); raising awareness, exchanging and providing information, as
well as participating in cooperation activities within the framework of the Convention, on*

Deputy Director, Department for Judicial Reform, Central Internal Affairs Committee (CIAC), Viet Nam.

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the basis of conformity with basic principles of national law; participating in a mechanism
to evaluate the implementation of the Convention (including self-assessment and assessing
other State parties). Viet Nam has performed its obligations as a member of the Convention;
However, the implementation process also poses a number of problems that need to beanalysed and evaluated in order to propose solutions to further improve implementation
efficiency.
Firstly, on the propagation and dissemination of the Convention and Viet Nam's law on
anti-corruption: To implement the Convention effectively, it is necessary to introduce theConvention to all subjects in society, to make all officials, public servants and citizens
clearly aware of the purpose, content and meaning of the Convention: There must be aconsensus of awareness before acting, and people need to understand the legal regulations,have high political will and social consensus to combat negative social phenomena. Awareof this, the Vietnamese Government and authorities at all levels have taken many measuresin propagating and disseminating the content of the United Nations Convention Against
Corruption as well as the provisions of Vietnamese law. In ten years, Vietnamese ministries,
agencies and sectors held thousands of public conferences and legal training courses on
anti-corruption, and published thousands of books, magazines and promotional materials.
The Government Inspectorate built a website, and the Central Internal Affairs Committee
has bulletins and reports on anti-corruption. Many Vietnamese press agencies at both
central and local levels set up topics, special statuses, special journals and reports on anticorruption work. The media has also contributed to uncovering many corruption cases.
Corruption cases are reported accurately and timely such as the corruption case related to
the East-West Highway Project in Ho Chi Minh City and the land corruption case in Do
Son, Hai Phong.
Secondly, the State has issued a series of important legal documents to fight against
corruption. In particular, the National Strategy against corruption until 2020 (issued
together with the Government's Resolution No. 21/NQ-CP, dated 12 May 2009) is an
important document, comprehensively defining the important points, objectives, groups ofsolutions, as well as a clear route to carry out anti-corruption work.
Thirdly, promoting the formulation and improvement of policies and laws: More than
10 years after joining the Convention, Viet Nam has achieved positive results in perfecting
policies and laws on anti-corruption in the direction of improving the level of compliancewith the requirements of the Convention, especially the mandatory requirements. The
improvement of policies and laws is comprehensively focused on both prevention,
detection and handling of corruption. Notable results to be mentioned are the passage of
the Penal Code by the National Assembly in 2015 (amended and supplemented in 2017),
which stipulates that it is a crime to commit acts of corruption in enterprises andorganizations in the non-state sector (including: embezzlement, accepting bribes, brokering
bribes and giving bribes); and the act of giving bribes to foreign public servants, public
employees of international public organizations has been criminalized.
The Law on Anti-corruption in 2018 also demonstrates the strong determination of theParty and State in the fight against corruption and demonstrates Viet Nam's commitment
to improving the level of compliance with the Convention when there are challenges.
Significant progress has been made in perfecting the institution on anti-corruption. The
Law introduces a series of new measures based on the results of the evaluation of Viet
Nam's implementation of the Convention, such as expanding the subject matter of people- 160 -

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with positions and powers, accompanied by corrupt acts in law, enterprises andorganizations in the non-state sector (embezzlement, accepting bribes, giving bribes andbrokering bribes), thereby stipulating appropriate anti-corruption mechanisms andmeasures effectively; strengthening the preventive measures required by the Convention,such as publicity, implementing accountability, controlling conflicts of interest in
combination with a proactive mechanism to closely control assets and income of powerfulpeople; supplying additional measures to handle violations of the law.
Fourth, raising awareness, exchanging, sharing, providing information andparticipating in activities within the framework of the Convention: Since becoming a State
party, Viet Nam has carried out many activities to raise awareness for civil servants, public
employees, businesses and people about the Convention (including information on the
results of the review and assessment of the compatibility and compliance with Vietnameselaws); at the same time, Viet Nam has been exchanging, sharing and providing information
on Viet Nam's anti-corruption policies, laws and enforcement to the Secretariat of theConvention and its members at official meetings.
Fifth, participating in the evaluation mechanism of the implementation of theConvention: As an assessed country, Viet Nam was recognized by the Convention
Secretariat and foreign experts for its serious, straightforward and responsible
implementation process, especially the preparation of the self-assessment report and theorganizing of the field assessment activities. Currently, the evaluation activities on theimplementation of the Convention for Viet Nam in the second evaluation cycle are about
to end. Particularly in the first assessment cycle, Viet Nam is one of the earliest countries
to complete the preparation of the self-assessment report and complete the assessment
activities. The summary and full version of Viet Nam's national assessment report on theimplementation of the Convention have been published in full on the Web Portal of theUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Besides that, the assessment resultsin the first assessment cycle (the period 2010 – 2012) are important information for the
relevant agencies of Viet Nam in the process of comprehensive revision to the 2015 Penal
Code (amended and supplemented in 2017) and the 2018 Law on Anti-Corruption.
As a reviewer country, over the past 10 years, Viet Nam has been one of the member
countries that has actively sent government experts to participate in the assessment for othercountries. In the first review cycle, Viet Nam twice participated in the assessment for theRepublic of Austria (in 2011) and China (in 2015); In the second assessment cycle, Viet
Nam participated in the assessment for Solomon Islands (in 2017) and the Republic ofAustria (in 2020). Experts from the Government of Viet Nam have affirmed theirprofessional competence and professional working skills, especially in the China
assessment, where experts from the Government of Viet Nam took the lead role in carryingout the assessment together with the experts from the Convention Secretariat and Bahamas.
The results of experts of the Government of Viet Nam have been recognized by the partners
and the Convention Secretariat, thereby contributing to affirming Viet Nam's position in
multilateral cooperation forums.
However, the problems are the ability to implement the Convention by the civil servantsand experts of law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, the actual result is, there has notbeen a real and proactive connection between participating in activities within theframework of the Convention and improving the effectiveness of domestic law enforcement
on anti-corruption.
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II. RECOMMENDING SOME SOLUTIONS TO INCREASE VIET NAM’S ROLEIN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON THE PREVENTION OF
CORRUPTIONFirstly, it is necessary to be properly aware of the position and role of the Convention,
thereby being more proactive in the process of completing and enforcing the law on anticorruption. Similar to many other international treaties, Viet Nam affirms that it does not
apply the provisions of the Convention directly but must apply those provisions inaccordance with the basic principles of the domestic legal system. However, when some of
the Convention's anti-corruption standards are referenced in new-generation free trade
agreements, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP), it is necessary to take a more proactive stance in perfecting policies
and laws in order to improve compliance with the Convention. Viet Nam has actively
reviewed, planned and taken necessary steps in perfecting the institution and enforcing thelaw as required by the Convention. In the coming time, this work should be focused andimplemented more proactively, especially in terms of ensuring the implementation ofrequirements related to the implementation of commitments on transparency and anticorruption in new-generation free trade agreements such as the CPTPP.
Accordingly, it is necessary to study measures to ensure the implementation ofregulations on enhancing integrity and transparency in agencies, organizations andenterprises in the State and non-state sectors (as defined in Chapter 2 of this Decree), suchas controlling conflicts of interest and dealing with conflicts of interest; developing andimplementing business integrity compliance programmes; measures to identify beneficial
owners’ benefits) because this content is attached to the commitments in Article 26.6 of the
CPTPP, when the parties commit to ensure compliance with the principles of conduct of
APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum) for public officials (July 2007).
Similarly, it is necessary to take measures to handle the legal liability of organizations andenterprises in the non-state sector when there is an act of bribery or related to the act ofbribery (Article 21 of the Convention).
In addition, the Convention also provides many provisions that are not mandatory formembers, but implementation helps promote priorities in the fight against corruption in ourcountry today, such as the mechanism for recovering corrupt assets through international
cooperation in confiscating and recovering corrupt assets. These regulations need tocontinue to be studied to come up with specific measures to enforce in accordance with thebasic principles of Vietnamese law in the near future.
Secondly, to ensure compliance with UNCAC, in the current context of increasing
international cooperation, the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017) has
added the scope of corruption in enterprises and regional organizations in the non-state
sector into the chapter on official corruption. However, the current regulations are still
conflicting between the Criminal Code, the Enterprise Law, and the Anti-Corruption Law,making it difficult to apply. In the current period, corruption crimes in the private sector
are on the rise. Therefore, it is necessary to have an adjustment and unification of relevant
legal documents to increase criminal sanctions on corrupt crimes in the private sector,
contributing to improving the effectiveness of anti-corruption work in the near future, suchas internet fraud.

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Thirdly, it is necessary to focus on promoting more substantive cooperation
mechanisms within the framework of the Convention and consider it as a means ofsupporting effective enforcement of domestic laws on anti-corruption. It is necessary for
Viet Nam to clearly emphasize that the performance of the obligations of members within
the framework of the Convention will help Viet Nam to improve the effectiveness of law
enforcement in preventing and combating corruption in the country, because this is theultimate goal of countries when joining Conventions. Therefore, it is necessary to create aclose connection between participating in activities within the framework of theConvention and the requirements on improving the effectiveness of domestic law
enforcement on anti-corruption. At present, working groups have been established as
mentioned above to assist State parties in implementing the Convention, especially inpromoting information exchange, sharing of experiences and agreeing on implementation
measures. Participating in such working groups will help members find and establish more
substantive cooperation mechanisms, including bilateral cooperation mechanisms among
members to remove practical difficulties or barriers. Past experience shows that, in manycases, the consideration, investigation and handling of corruption cases is often difficult orsomewhat prolonged because of these obstacles. Therefore, Viet Nam can overcome thissituation through promoting more substantive cooperation within the framework of theConvention.
In addition, access to State parties’ updated information and data (including information
on policies, laws, implementation results, difficulties, problems and practices) is shared.
Sharing in the activities of working groups is very necessary for Viet Nam.
Fourth, it is necessary to focus on building the capacity of implementing the Convention
for the contingent of civil servants and experts of law enforcement agencies. The results
achieved in the implementation of the Convention recently have initially confirmed theprofessional capacity and working skills of the contingent of civil servants and experts ofVietnamese law enforcement agencies, especially the Government's expert, whoparticipated in the implementation review mechanism of the Convention. However, it isnecessary to build capacity for implementing the Convention among the contingent of civil
servants and experts of law enforcement agencies to improve the effectiveness of domestic
law enforcement on anti-corruption.
To overcome this situation, the contingent of civil servants and experts of law
enforcement agencies must grasp the requirements and obstacles that are posed, ordifficulties and advantages, in the practice of fighting against corruption in Viet Nam toproactively propose measures to promote domestic law enforcement through cooperation
mechanisms within the framework of the Convention. For example, sharing difficulties inrecovering corrupt assets in cases and cases with foreign elements to discuss withrepresentatives of members within the framework of meetings of the Group on asset
recovery; then finding common solutions or specific solutions with relevant members, andpromoting exchange or negotiation in order to promote the process of supporting thesettlement of domestic corruption cases and cases. Similarly, it is necessary to promote theexchange of information, cooperation in investigation, coordination in verification etc.
among the competent authorities in order to support other law enforcement activities in the
country.
Fifth, promote e-government, administrative reform, publicity and transparency inpublic administration; standardization of civil servant titles; building professional ethics.
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Viet Nam has added regulations on the information system and national database on
public investment and strengthened the monitoring, supervision, inspection andexamination of public investment activities and the use of public investment capital bypromoting the application of information technology in public investment management.
Other important initiatives include e-Government and moving towards Digital Government,
actively contributing to the fight against corruption; implementing the overall plan tosimplify administrative procedures, citizenship papers and databases; establishing andpublishing the national database on administrative procedures on the Internet; focusing on
ethical standards and codes of conduct for people with positions and powers in agencies,
organizations, such as prohibiting the giving and receiving of gifts.
Sixth, strengthen the capacity of specialized agencies in anti-corruption, especiallylegal proceedings agencies. The reform of self-governing bodies must be carried out
synchronously, associated with public and transparent activities, and democracy
implementing in society.
Seventh, promote the important role of the mass media in the supervision of the people
to actively participate in the fight against corruption, especially honouring those who dare
to fight against corruption.
Eighth, continue to research and propose to promulgate a new National Strategy for
Anti-Corruption of Viet Nam for the next period from 2021 to 2030. It is necessary to add
some stronger solutions, such as: controlling power to prevent and fight corruption; illegal
property recovery; preventing and combating corruption crimes with foreign elements etc.
Supplementing solutions on national assessment criteria and indicators on corruption in the
direction of diversifying assessment forms to ensure accuracy and objectivity. Refer to theresults of sociological investigations, official and objective assessments andrecommendations of international organizations for Viet Nam's anti-corruption policy.
In order to promote the effectiveness of international cooperation in the fight against
corruption in the coming time, it is necessary to implement all of the above-mentioned
solutions. The most important issues are focusing on promoting more substantive
cooperation mechanisms within the framework of the Convention and considering it as ameans of supporting effective enforcement of domestic laws on anti-corruption andbuilding the capacity of implementing the Convention for the contingent of civil servantsand experts of law enforcement agencies. Besides that, promoting e-government,
administrative reform and building professional ethics are also essential methods.

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