The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) signed an MOU on 15 September with Thailand"s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) concerning mutual cooperation on preventing and combating corruption.

With Korea"s anti-corruption capacity-building programs gaining more international recognition, the bilateral MOU was initially proposed by the NACC, which showed a keen interest in adopting Korea"s corruption prevention programs including the Integrity Survey, Assessment of Anti-Corruption Initiatives, and Corruption Impact Assessment. These programs have been successfully transferred to Indonesia as part of technical cooperation programs between the ACRC and the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission.


The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) signed an MOU on 15 September with Thailand"s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) concerning mutual cooperation on preventing and combating corruption.

With Korea"s anti-corruption capacity-building programs gaining more international recognition, the bilateral MOU was initially proposed by the NACC, which showed a keen interest in adopting Korea"s corruption prevention programs including the Integrity Survey, Assessment of Anti-Corruption Initiatives, and Corruption Impact Assessment. These programs have been successfully transferred to Indonesia as part of technical cooperation programs between the ACRC and the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission.

In-je Park, Acting Chairman and Secretary-General of the ACRC, (right) and Panthep Klanarongran, President of the National Anti-Corruption Commission of Thailand, are shaking hands after signing an MOU on mutual cooperation to fight corruption.

According to the Korea-Thai MOU, both parties plan to exchange anti-corruption policies, experiences, and human resources, especially in the area of corruption prevention; conduct joint research and study; organize bilateral seminars and symposiums; and develop anti-corruption training programs. The parties also agreed to make active efforts to promote the progress and achievements of cooperation under the MOU in their collaborative activities with international organizations, donor agencies, academic institutions, and civil society organizations.

The ACRC expects that the signing of the MOU with the NACC will serve to strengthen its ties with Thailand, one of the leading countries of ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations). Especially, it hopes that the bilateral cooperation will greatly contribute to enhancing anti-corruption capacity of the two commissions by sharing experience and know-how in implementing the ACRC"s various and systematic corruption prevention policies and NACC"s comprehensive and rigorous corruption control policies.

In December 2006, the ACRC concluded an MOU on bilateral cooperation for fighting corruption with the Corruption Eradication Commission of Indonesia, and has since actively cooperating with the Indonesian counterpart to follow up the MOU.

For two years from 2007, the ACRC also helped public officials of Bhutan and Bangladesh build anti-corruption capacity in cooperation with the UNDP.

As of 15 September, Thailand has become the fourth country with which Korea has formed strategic partnerships to fight corruption.