Anti-terror financing workshop held

Turkmenistan officials working to increase the country's involvement in combating terror-ism financing recently hosted a two-day training workshop.

The aim of the workshop, held Tuesday and Wednesday in the capital city of Ashgabat, was to train Turkmenistan authorities on tactics to fight money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The event was organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe along with the World Bank, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Monetary Fund and the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, the OSCE reported.

"A single country alone is not capable of fighting money laundering and terrorism financing," Ambassador Ibrahim Djikic, the head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, said in a statement. "In our globalized world, borders are not an obstacle for organized crime groups and terrorists. Only coordinated actions by law enforcement agencies of different countries and assistance from the private and financial sectors can do the job."

Officials say the training included international standards on how to implement an effective anti- money-laundering and terrorism-financing system to protect the citizens of Turkmenistan. The workshop is part of a larger effort by Turkmenistan to crack down on terrorism funds that are trafficked through the country. "Turkmenistan is in the process of drafting a new law to improve its national efforts to fight organized criminal activity and more effectively contribute to the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing," the release said.

Source: UPI Energy