Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday called upon the international community to take steps to counter illicit flows of money, saying the “stolen assets” of developing countries must be returned.
Addressing a high-level panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly session, the premier said the global community must take “decisive actions” to stop “this bleeding of the poor and developing countries”.
The event was convened to “present the interim report of the FACTI panel, which identifies the major gaps in the implementation and the systemic shortcomings of the existing international frameworks for tax cooperation, anti-corruption [and] anti-money laundering”, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Twitter.
Prime Minister Imran said Pakistan appreciated the initiative by Nigeria and Norway to establish the panel on international financial accountability.
Noting that billions of dollars illicitly flow out of developing countries each year, he said his government had come “with a robust public mandate to get rid of this menace from our country”.
He said although the PTI government had taken several initiatives domestically, “what is required is strengthening international cooperation to bring perpetrators of financial crimes to justice”.
The premier said the figures of illicit flows mentioned in the report released by the FACTI panel were “staggering”.
“$1 trillion is taken out each year by these white-collar criminals,” he noted. “$20-40 billion is in the form of bribes received by these corrupt white-collar criminals; $7 trillion in stolen assets is parked in these safe tax haven destinations; $500-600 billion is lost each year in tax avoidance by mutinational companies.”
The event provided a forum to discuss priority actions on identified challenges, “particularly in light of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on progress towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, the PMO said.
The prime minister is due to address the United Nations General Assembly today (Friday). His speech will focus on Kashmir dispute, the Foreign Office said earlier. The general debate, which is the centrepiece of any UN General Assembly session, started from Tuesday. The current session, which is the 75th session, is unique in the world body’s history with leaders not attending in person and other meetings being held online.
