The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Agio Pereira, met today, September 26th, 2023, at the Government Palace in Dili, with the team that is accompanying the representatives of the Asia Pacific Group (APG). From September 18th to 28th, 2023, an APG team will be in Timor-Leste to assess the country’s commitment to comply with international standards in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Chief of Cabinet from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Filomeno Rómulo dos Santos Lay, the acting Director-General for Multilateral and Regional Affairs, Leoneto Mantilo and the Executive Director of the Financial Information Unit of the Central Bank of Timor-Leste (BCTL), Maria José Sarmento, attended this meeting.
The APG team conducting the assessment of Timor-Leste comprises ten advisors specialised in legal, financial/regulatory and law enforcement, including financial intelligence units, from China, Australia, Indonesia, Portugal, Canada, Sri Lanka and Japan.
During the meeting, the APG experts reported to the Minister on the activities that had taken place over the last week since the start of the evaluation carried out by the Asia Pacific Group. This is the second time this evaluation has been carried out in Timor-Leste since its accession in July 2008.
In this evaluation phase, Asia Pacific Group representatives are examining the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the Government following international standards. Various relevant government and private sector entities will be heard during this process. This evaluation process assigns ratings to the recommendations, ranging from “no complaints” to “substantial complaints”, based on 40 specific recommendations.
Timor-Leste has been developing its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing system with the enactment of specific laws in recent years, most notably the establishment of the Timor-Leste Financial Intelligence Unit in 2014.
In 1995, Australia established the “FATF-Asia Secretariat” in Asia-Pacific, which drove the creation of the Asia-Pacific Anti-Money Laundering Group (APG) in 1997. This organisation has grown over the years and is now the largest in membership and geographical size among similar bodies, forming part of a global network known as “Financial Action Task Force-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs).”