316 Public Order
Hong Kong participated in the activities of FATF and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), an FATF-style regional inter-governmental organisation. Hong Kong participated in all the working group meetings and plenary meetings of FATF and annual meeting of APG. Staff from the Police, Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) and ND attended the FATF/APG Annual Typologies Meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November. In addition, a legal expert from the Department of Justice (DOJ) attended the Expert Meeting on Asset Forfeiture in Vienna, organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in December.
Apart from taking part in the discussion on policy formulation in the FATF, Hong Kong also sent experts from different departments to participate in the Mutual Evaluations on other jurisdictions as assessors. During the year, a financial expert from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority participated in the Joint FATF/APG Mutual Evaluation of Canada (March), while a legal expert from DoJ took part in the APG Mutual Evaluation of Indonesia (October/December), and a law enforcement expert from JFIU participated in the Joint World Bank/APG Mutual Evaluation of Cambodia (February/March).
This year, it was Hong Kong's turn to be the subject of a Joint FATF/APG Mutual Evaluation. The ND coordinated and submitted a detailed response to a very exacting Mutual Evaluation questionnaire to the FATF/APG Secretariat in September. A team of assessors visited Hong Kong in mid-November to conduct an on-site evaluation which lasted two weeks. The Mutual Evaluation Report on Hong Kong will be discussed at the FATF Plenary and APG Annual Meeting in mid-2008.
Hong Kong played host to the FATF Mutual Evaluations Assessors' training workshop in January. Colleagues from the DoJ, Police, C&ED, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Securities and Futures Commission, Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and ND attended the training. Colleagues from various departments also attended training workshops or seminars overseas to keep abreast of the latest AML/CFT developments and standards. In May, a legal expert from DoJ attended the Mutual Evaluation Assessors' training workshop organised by MONEYVAL, another FATF-style regional body in Strasbourg, France. In July, a C&ED officer participated in the APG Forum on Technical Assistance held in Perth, Australia.
During the year, representatives of the Police and the JFIU attended the EGMONT Plenary in Bermuda. In September and October, the JFIU organised two anti-money laundering and financial investigation courses for overseas and local law enforcement agencies. Participating countries and territories included Australia, Korea, China, Macao, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. The head of JFIU spoke at the second training course on 'Investigation in Anti-Drug Money Laundering for ASEAN Law Enforcement Officers' in Singapore in December.
International cooperation is vital in combating transnational crimes such as money laundering. Different government departments continued to facilitate the granting of legal assistance to other jurisdictions in accordance with bilateral agreements. By year-end, Hong Kong had concluded 22 mutual legal assistance agreements and 17 surrender-of-fugitive-offenders agreements.