Korea-Vietnam-UNDP jointly hold “AIA Workshop”

Korea’s Anti-Corruption Initiative Assessment (AIA) will be adopted in Vietnam.

The ACRC reported that it held a workshop with Vietnam’s anti-corruption authority, the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GIV), and the UNDP in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 16 to discuss the expansion of the AIA to Vietnam’s central government.

The AIA, which the ACRC annually conducts on all public organizations, is used to examine anti-corruption and integrity activities promoted by public organizations.

Since signing an MOU with the UNDP in September 2015, the ACRC has cooperated with the UNDP Seoul Policy Center to assist the Vietnamese government with adopting an AIA suitable for the country. Last year, the GIV conducted a pilot AIA on 63 local inspectorates.

In this workshop, the ACRC, the GIV, and the UNDP shared results from last year’s pilot assessment and discussed further development plans.

Vice Chairperson Park Kyung-ho, in his congratulatory address, said, “The AIA conducted last year was completed successfully thanks to active commitment of the GIV. The ACRC will share its experiences, including trials and errors, to assist the Vietnamese government’s anti-corruption and integrity activities.”

Vice Chairperson Park also met Vietnam’s high-ranking officials—GIV Inspector General Phan Van Sau, Chairman of The Central Commission for Internal Affairs Phan Dinh Trac—as well as Kamal Malhotra, the UN resident coordinator in Vietnam, to ask for their support and interest in the AIA.

The workshop was attended by 150 participants from the Vietnamese central and local government authorities, civil society, and academia, as well as by Vice Chairperson Park, GIV Inspector General Phan, and UNDP Seoul Policy Center Director Balázs Horváth.

Director Horváth visited ACRC Chairperson Sung Yung-hoon on March 6 and heralded that, “The ACRC is one of the best partners for the UNDP. Anti-corruption cooperation with Korea is highly praised inside the UNDP. The success of Korea-Vietnam-UNDP’s triangle of cooperation for the AIA is expected to be an exemplary case for other countries.”