Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, Nabil Ammar chaired on Wednesday in Tunis the opening of the first Pan-African High-Level conference on Fighting Illicit Financial Flows in Africa, organised by the African Union.
The conference is hosted by Tunisia from June 26 to 28 under the theme “Africa’s Tax Agenda in Combating Illicit Financial Flows: From Words to Actions”.
In a speech delivered on this occasion, the Minister stressed the need for some Nordic countries to abandon the rhetoric of preaching, advice and double standards.
This rhetoric is “seemingly supportive of principles of human rights and democracy, but do not actively participate in Africa’s efforts to achieve its de facto independence and rely on its own resources to fulfil the aspirations of its peoples for development and progress.”
In this context, he underlined the importance for African countries to recover their looted funds, which ultimately serve the interests and economies of a group of Nordic countries. The latter often cite procedures and complexity as reasons for not sharing the information needed to achieve the goal of recovering these assets.
“This is coupled with the continuous failure of the international institutions concerned to provide appropriate solutions in this regard to developing countries in general and the countries of the continent in particular,” he pointed out.
In this context, he stressed the political dimension of the conference’s theme, which is not merely technical, given that the fight against illicit financial flows in Africa requires a political commitment on the part of the international community and countries and governments.
“Today, more than ever, they are called upon to demonstrate their sincere intention to support the continent’s development efforts by participating in its efforts to combat corruption, terrorism, tax evasion, the fight against illicit financial flows and the return of looted and smuggled funds to African countries.”
The Minister said that the focus of the conference is one of the main priorities and concerns of Tunisian diplomacy.
He reviewed Tunisia’s efforts to develop national legislation and strengthen the necessary mechanisms in this field, as well as coordination and cooperation with other countries and the relevant regional and international organisations and institutions to trace, freeze and confiscate looted assets across borders.
Finally, the Minister reiterated Tunisia’s call for an overhaul of the international financial system and a reform of the structures based on it and their working methods.
The aim is to reduce the liquidity of illicit funds, “the flow of which depends on complicit parties in our countries”. It is also necessary to effectively combat criminal financial activities that “not only undermine the ability of African countries to mobilise resources to finance sustainable development, but also undermine their institutions, the rule of law, the judiciary and governance systems by penetrating the state through corruption and bribery”.
