The 2023 International Forum on Police Cooperation Combating Transnational Crime: 31 countries represented at the event with a common pledge of combating transnational crime
The 2023 International Forum on Police Cooperation Combating Transnational Crime is jointly hosted by Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mainland Affairs Council, and organized by the National Police Agency, September 4 through 7, 2023, at the Grand Mayfull Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan, both in person, domestic, and international online videoconferencing. The September 5 Opening Ceremony started with opening remarks from Deputy Minister Tang-An Wu of Ministry of the Interior, along with those of Vice Premier Wen-Tsan Cheng of Executive Yuan, and President John Letteney of International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The launch ceremony has extended invitations to the following dignitaries to open the Forum on the dais together: Vice Premier Wen-Tsan Cheng of Executive Yuan, Deputy Minister Tang-An Wu of Ministry of the Interior, Deputy Minister Chung-Kwang Tien of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister Wen-Chieh Liang of Mainland Affairs Council, President John Letteney of IACP, Director General Edwin Manfredo Ardiano López of the National Civil Police, Ministry of the Interior of Guatemala, and Director-General Ming-Chao Huang of National Police Agency.
This Forum focuses on “Combating Transnational Crime”, with guests invited from prosecutors, police administrators, law enforcement officials and diplomats from around the world. The Forum will feature 2 keynote speeches and 4 seminars, on “Cybercrime, Telecom Fraud and Human Trafficking”, “Drug Crime”, “Illicit Financial Flows and Money Laundering”, and “Gangs and Organized Crime”. Law enforcement experts and professionals from Europe, the Americas, and Asia and the Pacific, will discuss these diverse dimensions as moderators, speakers, and panelists. Domestic guests include members of the diplomatic corps and representatives in Taiwan, along with law enforcement experts and professionals from the Ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, prosecutorial agencies, mainland affairs, police administration, and senior government executives and civil service officers joining in the discussions, for a total of 2,600 participants from 31 countries participating together (200 in person and 2,400 in virtual meeting).
In the opening remarks of Vice Premier Wen-Tsan Cheng of Executive Yuan, he emphasized how efforts at the ever evolving modalities of Telecom Fraud have required the Executive Yuan to respond by issuing the Next-generation anti-fraud strategy guidelines, version 1.5, in May, 2023, along with amendments to the Five Anti-Fraud Acts, namely, the Criminal Code of the Republic of China, Human Trafficking Prevention Act, Personal Data Protection Act, Money Laundering Control Act, and Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act, aiming to deploy the four dimensions of identifying, preventing, intercepting and convicting fraud cases, through cooperation of the public and private sectors to implement anti-fraud measures, achieving the three goals of reducing fraud through “reducing contact, reducing deception, and reducing harms”, to comprehensively reduce the overall occurrence of fraud crimes.
In the remarks of President John Letteney of IACP, regarding fast information spreading, law enforcement need to develop cross-jurisdiction cooperation and coordination, especially in combating transnational crime. In today’s world, criminal activities rarely stop at the national order, law enforcement need to consider all types of crime in the global perspective to stay one step ahead. Law enforcement also need to be more vigilant and proactive to transnational criminal activities. IACP supports National Police Agency to combat transnational crime and provide practical assistance.
In the remarks of Deputy Minister Tang-An Wu of Ministry of the Interior, he noted that every day we are faced with ever evolving transnational crime methods, so international law enforcement cooperation is increasingly imperative, as it is only through our common efforts of exchanging criminal intelligence among all countries’ law enforcement agencies, deploying mutual cooperation, that we can successfully and completely defeat such crimes. In 2020, Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau collaborated successfully with the Thai law enforcement authorities to arrest a wanted financial fraud criminal from Taiwan; in October 2022, we worked with the United States law enforcement agencies and Cambodian colleagues to jointly bust Cambodia’s largest drug smuggling case of the year. These cases are the best examples of our international law enforcement cooperation.
This year’s Forum will serve as an important exchange platform to enjoy participation from academic experts, law enforcement agencies, judicial entities, and police administrations, working together at combating transnational telecommunications fraud, sharing diverse viewpoints and perspectives along with exchanging practical experiences we have all learned from, ensuring participants gain pragmatic exposure to propose realistic countermeasures in our joint resolve at combating transnational crime together.
