The BRICS countries－Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa－have agreed to attach particular importance to the denial of safe haven to corruption, the pursuit of corruption perpetrators and collaboration on asset recovery, with more cooperation in anti-corruption law enforcement and higher attention to anti-graft education.
The agreement has been written into the BRICS Anti-Corruption Ministerial Communique, which was adopted at the first BRICS Anti-Corruption Ministerial Meeting, held on Wednesday via video link in Beijing.
Under the communique, BRICS countries are committed to striving to prevent the overseas transfer of proceeds of corruption, combat proceeds-generating crimes and fight corruption.
As the world's emerging markets and major developing countries, the five nations also pledged in the communique to enhance international cooperation on returning stolen assets to their rightful owners and avoiding unreasonable administrative hurdles to such transfers.
Yang Xiaodu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and chairman of the National Commission of Supervision, said in his opening remarks at the meeting that the CPC has always opposed corruption, with a series of new strategies to combat graft since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012.
He also emphasized that anti-corruption is the same mission faced by each country and called for the BRICS members to learn from one another and improve anti-graft governance.
"We need to join hands to promote development, building a clean business environment together," he added.
During the meeting, representatives from other BRICS countries and international organizations also shared their ideas on anti-corruption cooperation and what they have done to fight corruption.
The communique also states that information sharing and coordination among the BRICS countries will be increased among relevant domestic agencies specialized in combating corruption, and compliance and internal control mechanisms against corruption will also be encouraged among these countries' businesses.
At the end of last month, the BRICS Initiative on Denial of Safe Haven to Corruption was reached at the 14th BRICS Summit, in a bid to uphold multilateralism and advance international cooperation against graft.
In the initiative, all BRICS countries are urged to fully use and improve their domestic laws, regulations and policies to tackle corruption, and they are also required to respect the legal systems of other countries while undertaking cooperation.
