News

The APG’s 2023 annual meeting and its concurrently run Technical Assistance and Training (TA&T) Forum were attended by over 300 international delegates from around the Asia-Pacific during the week of 10 July in Vancouver, British Columbia. Delegates discussed important issues affecting the region and the globe relating to serious financial crime, including money laundering, terrorist financing and WMD proliferation financing.

The meeting was co-chaired by (host) Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance Julien Brazeau of Canada’s Department of Finance and Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney of the Australian Federal Police.

Canada’s Federal Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, Randy Boissonnault PC MP, and British Columbia Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Safety, Mike Farnworth MLA, opened the APG plenary meeting on 11 July.

The Vice-President of the Financial Action Task Force, Jeremy Weil of Canada spoke to APG delegates about the strength of the FATF global AML/CFT network and the important role of the APG in that network. 

British Columbia Premier, David Robert Patrick Eby KC, MLA, addressed the membership on the final day in closing comments.

During the plenary meeting the APG achieved a number of important outcomes including:

• Admitting Tuvalu as the newest APG member. The APG now has 42 member jurisdictions (the largest FSRB in the global network);
• Admitting Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates as APG observers. APG now has 9 observer jurisdictions;
• Conducting the APG's Technical Assistance and Training Forum, to coordinate and plan technical assistance between APG members and a large group of donors and providers of technical assistance. 23 meetings were held as part of that Forum directly resulting in progress on a wide range of assistance programmes to many APG members;
• Adopting the mutual evaluation reports of Lao PDR, Brunei Darussalam and Nepal. These reports will be published on this website following an independent post-adoption review process as required by APG procedures;
• Adopting the mutual evaluation follow-up reports of Mongolia and Thailand;
• Adopting the APG typology report entitled Money Laundering Associated with Tax Crimes in the Asia/Pacific, jointly prepared by the Australian Tax Office and the APG;
• Adopting a second APG typology report entitled Protecting Non-Profit Organizations from Terrorism Financing Abuse: Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned from the Asia Pacific Region jointly prepared by the Global Center for Cooperative Security and the APG;
• Agreeing on the APG's 4th round mutual evaluations schedule, setting out the sequence of the next mutual evaluation round commencing in 2026;
• Agreeing to increase resources for the APG Secretariat from 2025 to effectively support the 4th round of mutual evaluations; and
• Endorsement of Japan as the incoming Co-Chair for two years commencing in July 2024.

In addition to the above outcomes, the membership also made a number of important strategic and governance-related decisions including establishing a process to examine the status of the APG's mandate term and its strategic direction and functions for the next four years. 

The APG has grown from strength to strength since its establishment in 1997 and the outcomes achieved in 2023 continue to position the APG and the region to more effectively defeat efforts by criminals and terrorists to subvert the integrity of the international financial system.

The reports adopted in Vancouver will be published in the coming months.