OPENING REMARKSTakeshi Seto *The Honourable Dr. Tran Con Phan, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s
Procuracy of Viet Nam, the Honourable Mr. ASAZUMA Shinichi, Deputy Chief of Mission,
Embassy of Japan in Viet Nam, honourable guests, distinguished experts and participants, ladiesand gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to announce the opening of the Twelfth Regional
Seminar on Good Governance for Southeast Asian Countries. I would like to extend my heartfelt
welcome to our honourable guests, distinguished speakers and participants who have come tojoin this significant forum. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest
appreciation to the government of Viet Nam, especially to the Supreme People’s Procuracy ofViet Nam, for their great contribution and assistance in co-hosting this seminar.
UNAFEI is one of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme
Network Institutes (PNI), established in 1962 by an agreement between the United Nations andthe Government of Japan. The PNI consists of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) in Vienna and several interregional and regional institutes and specialized centres
around the world. UNAFEI's main activities are to hold international training courses andseminars for criminal justice practitioners from around the world and to undertake research in thefield of the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders. Every year, UNAFEI offers four
multinational training courses, each of which addresses a different subject. In choosing thespecific topic to be addressed in each programme, every effort is made to incorporate the priority
issues identified by the United Nations. As a result, we find ourselves more frequently andregularly choosing topics related to the challenges posed by transnational organized crime andcorruption.
This sets the background for the present seminar. The Regional Seminar on Good
Governance for Southeast Asian Countries is an initiative, begun in 2007, in order to enhance
our capacity-building and networking efforts in the field of good governance and anti-corruption.
Every year, we choose one topic of substantive importance in line with the United Nations
Convention against Corruption and invite participants from Southeast Asian countries fordiscussion. This time, the main theme of the seminar is “The Latest Regional Trends inCorruption and Effective Countermeasures by Criminal Justice Authorities”. UNAFEI has
hosted the seminar for 11 years to prevent and combat corruption. Our previous Seminar dealt
with the best practices of investigation, prosecution, adjudication and prevention of corruption toreview and recognize the developments in the field of anti-corruption over the past decade.
Based on the outcome of the 11th seminar, I believe it is worth reviewing the latest corruption*Director, United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.

-9-trends in each participating country, identifying problems which need to be addressed andexploring the way forward by reviewing and recognizing the developments in the field of anticorruption over the past decade.
I look forward to seeing this seminar provide a useful forum to exchange expertise andexperience in our common endeavour against corruption, contributing further to the promotion ofgood governance in Southeast Asia.
Thank you very much for your attention.

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