MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRESS STATEMENT - SEMINAR ON ANTI-CORRUPTION FOR AFGHANISTAN: EXPERIENCES OF SINGAPORE AND JAPAN

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRESS STATEMENT - SEMINAR ON ANTI-CORRUPTION FOR AFGHANISTAN: EXPERIENCES OF SINGAPORE AND JAPAN 

A group of 18 senior government officials from various regulatory and oversight institutions in Afghanistan will be in Singapore from 18 to 22 July 2011 for a customised seminar on anti-corruption. Organised under the Japan-Singapore Partnership Programme for the 21st Century (JSPP21), this training programme is Singapore's and Japan's first collaboration in providing joint technical assistance to Afghanistan in the area of public governance and anti-corruption. This inaugural collaboration was announced by then Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at the International Conference on Afghanistan in Kabul on 20 July 2010.

Conducted by the Singapore Civil Service College, the one-week seminar aims to strengthen the capacity of senior Afghan policymakers in the field of good governance and managing corruption, which are current key priority areas for the Afghan Government. It will include site visits to Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and Supreme Court. Two Japanese professors from Japan's Meiji University will also share on the evolution of the Japanese system of government and its experience in managing corruption.

The JSPP21 is a framework of collaboration between the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP) of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, under which both countries provide joint technical assistance to developing countries. More on the JSPP21 and SCP are provided at Annex A and Annex B respectively.

Singapore has been extending technical assistance to Afghanistan under the SCP since 2002, when it pledged a technical assistance package (worth S$1.2 million) at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan in Tokyo. In addition to the JSPP21 and our bilateral training programmes, Singapore has also collaborated with The Asia Foundation and the German Federal Foreign Office to jointly organise human resource capacity building programmes for Afghanistan in the fields of anti-corruption and civil aviation respectively. To date, about 410 Afghan government officials have been trained under the SCP in diverse areas such as public administration, education, environment, urban transport planning. and healthcare.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
17 JULY 2011