International workshop on freezing of terrorist assets

10.11.2013. The two-day international workshop on freezing of terrorist assets in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) started its work at the President Hotel in the Turkmen capital. The workshop is organized by the Ministry of Finance of Turkmenistan jointly with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) and the International Training and Methodology Center for Financial Monitoring of the Russian Federation.

The workshop brought together over 110 participants from 16 countries, including the delegation of 9 EAG Member States, US, UK, Belgium, Austria, France and a number of CIS countries, the President of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the representatives of the FATF Secretariat and a number of specialized regional groups and international organisations, including the Counter-Terrorism Committee, OSCE, World Bank, the heads of financial intelligence units, the heads and specialists of law enforcement agencies and supervisory authorities of the Eurasian region.

The presentations focused on the positive practices of the workshop participants, including Turkmenistan that had intensified efforts in recent years to develop the institutional framework of the national system of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorist and improve the national legislation. A key role in this process is assigned to the Financial Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Finance – the national financial intelligence unit, which was established in January 2010 in accordance with the Resolution of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

Turkmenistan has made significant progress within intensive cooperation with the FATF in this important field. The Turkmen state, having acceded to a number of international documents, including the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption, stands steadfast in its commitments.

The participants of the workshop, the agenda of which focused on the ways to develop the organizational and legal mechanisms for implementing the measures to eliminate international terrorism and its manifestations in any form, expressed gratitude to the Turkmen side for organizing the forum and called for the promotion of cooperation in Addressing global challenges and threats.

State News Agency of Turkmenistan (TDH)