Towards Transparency at the Regional Conference of the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific

The 9th Regional Conference of the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific was held on 15-17 November in Seoul, Korea. The conference entitled “Nurturing an Anti-corruption Culture in the Asia-Pacific Region” brought together around 350 officials from 31 Member States, representatives of anti-corruption agencies as well as of private sector and civil society.

Towards Transparency’s Executive Director, Nguyen Thi Kieu Vien, was invited to speak and share Towards Transparency’s (TT) experiences of promoting integrity and anti-corruption amongst youth in Vietnam in a session: “Mainstreaming a Culture of Integrity for Youth: How can we influence the attitude and behaviour of the Next Generation?”.  TT’s recent successful experience in running the first ever Vietnam Integrity School (VIS) has been well received by the participants. Vien recalled that “Half of the Vietnamese citizens are under 30 years old, therefore engaging youth is essential to curb corruption successfully”.

The Conference was organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and hosted by the Government of Korea.  The opening ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, the chairperson of the Korean Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) Pak Un-jong, head of Office of Anti-corruption and Integrity of ADB, Clare Wee.