(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-29 20:49

BALI, INDONESIA -- Delegates from over 100 countries are sharing their experiences and strategies on Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative at a ministerial roundtable in UN Convention Against Corruption (CAC) held here Tuesday.

As one of technical assistance, StAR helps nations knock down barriers that make asset recovery complex, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

He emphasized the importance of efficiency for asset recovery, because stolen assets will be splurged quickly by corrupt leaders.

The StAR Initiative, which was launched by World Bank (WB) and UNODC last September, aims to help poorer nations retrieve assets spirited away to richer nations.

"To pursue back every 100 million US dollar stolen asset means to immunize 4 million infants, or pave 240 kilometer road, or facilitate 250 thousand people with clean water," Danny Leipziger, Vice President of World Bank who leads Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network said, "So the work is very important and imperative for those developing countries and people there."

"We must prevent the world's financial centers from still existing as safe heaven of corrupters who deposit stolen national wealth, lower the barriers for developing countries to realize stolen assets recovery and UNCAC domestication," Leipziger added.

Delegate from Switzerland, one of the world's biggest financial center echoed Leipziger that Switzerland returned 1.3 billion dollars in illegally acquired assets to rightful owners in a transparent and logical process in the past 20 years and will go on cooperate with UN agencies and WB to implement UNCAC.

Other topics like helping developing countries build capacity for requesting mutual legal assistance for asset recovery, building up partnerships or a kind of mechanism to share information and experience were also mentioned and discussed in the meeting.

According to a UN and WB report, global flows from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion are estimated at between 1 to 1.6 trillion dollars per year.

There were around 1,000 delegates from over 100 countries, dozens of international organizations and non-governmental organizations attending the 5-days UNCAC that opened on 28 January.

UNCAC was adapted by UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003, and entered into force on December 14, 2005 after ratification by over 30 countries. The first session of UNCAC was held at Jordan on December 10, 2006.