UFA benefits from new voluntary funding support from three members
UFA benefits from new voluntary funding support from three members
The UFA has recently received generous voluntary funding from three members, namely, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, and the United States.
The UFA welcomes the continuing support from these three members.
Chinese Taipei
On 5 February 2014, the Director-General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney, Australia, Mr Joseph C. F. Chow, presented the second instalment of a two-year AUD$160,000 grant to the UFA.
As reported in May 2013, the grant is designed to assist Pacific Island UFA members and observers to more effectively implement the global AML/CFT standards.
The grant has already been used to support Pacific members. Grant funding has been applied to the sponsorship of Pacific delegates to UFA events and visits by the UFA to Pacific members to support a better understanding of the UFA’s enhanced follow-up process following mutual evaluations and the FATF’s ICRG process.
Importantly, the second instalment of funding was vital to enabling the delivery of the UFA Pacific event held in Auckland, New Zealand, from 21 to 30 January 2014. Chinese Taipei partially funded the event, which consisted of UFA Pacific Assessor Training, UFA National Risk Assessment Training, and the UFA Pacific Typologies Workshop 2014 ‘ML and TF Risks and Vulnerabilities Associated with Trans-Pacific Drug Trafficking’.
New Zealand
In late 2013, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved two new grants to the UFA to fund programmes in both the Pacific and the South/South East Asia sub‑regions. These grants are in addition to previous grants already in use..
The Pacific funding will be used for a series of activities with key Pacific members to assist them with their national AML/CFT risk assessments prior to their upcoming mutual evaluations.
The funding for South and South East Asia is to assist several members with implementing challenging aspects of the FATF Standards.
Both grants are for one year with the opportunity to bid for further funding in future.
United States
The United States Department of State approved a substantial grant for use by the UFA in several activities across the region between October 2013 and June 2015.
The UFA has already used the new funding to support participation of members at the UFA 2013 Assessor Training in Sydney, Australia in November 2013, and at the UFA 2013 Training for Members to be Assessed, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December 2013. It was also instrumental in the delivery of the UFA Pacific Typologies Workshop 2014, ‘ML and TF Risks and Vulnerabilities Associated with Trans-Pacific Drug Trafficking’, in Auckland, New Zealand, January 2014.
The remainder of the United States funding grant will be used to undertake mutual evaluation related activities in the UFA.