Malaysia to host world's largest anti-graft conference

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will soon play host to the 16th international anti-corruption conference – the world's largest meeting.

This will be the first time the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission will be hosting such an event along with partners the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) council, Transparency International (TI) and Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M).

The conference, themed "Ending Impunity: People, Integrity, Action" will see the participation of leading experts from a wide array of disciplines coming under one roof to exchange views on progress and challenges in fighting corruption worldwide.

The conference will run from Sept 2-4 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to deliver the closing speech on the last day of the conference.

Malaysia was selected to be the host this year as it is a key country giving high commitment in combating corruption in Asia.

"I wish to affirm that Malaysia stands committed to learn and share information with our international anti-corruption counterparts. We shall continue to strengthen our commitment through the provision of capacity and capability building and the facilitation of technical assistance," said Senator Datuk Paul Low, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia, responsible for governance and integrity.

The IACC is the world's premier forum that brings together heads of state, civil society, the private sector and more to tackle the increasingly sophisticated challenges pose by corruption.

It takes place every two years and attracts up to 1,500 participants from over 135 countries. The last conference was held in Brazil from Nov 7-10, 2012.

More than 30 global leaders from all sectors have been confirmed to speak and discuss on the matter including Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) secretary-general Jose Angel Gurria and Natural Resource Governance Institute president and senior fellow in the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution, Daniel Kaufmann.