The 21st EAG Plenary Meeting Public Statement

The 21st EAG Plenary Meeting Public Statement

A. General Information on EAG Plenary Meeting
The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) the 21stPlenary meeting and meetings of Working Groups took place in Dushanbe (Republic of Tajikistan) from 10 to 14 November 2014.

The event was attended by delegations of EAG member states: Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of the EAG observer states and organizations: Armenia, Afghanistan, Poland, Turkey, the USA, Montenegro, France, Ukraine, the FATF, APG, MONEYVAL, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), the Asia Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank (WB), Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as well as Iran and CIS ATC which were invited by the Plenary.

The EAG Deputy Chairman, Chairman of the Committee on financial monitoring, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr. B. Tajiyakov chaired the Session.
 
B. The Most Important Issues of the Plenary Session
The Plenary approved Mr. Ajay Tyagi, the Republic of India, as the EAG Chairman until the completion of EAG Chairman Dr. K.P. Krishnan’s Action Plan in November 2015.

The Plenary approved Mr. Vladimir Nechaev as the EAG Executive Secretary from January 1, 2015 upon completion of the member states’ national consultations, if necessary.

The Plenary approved the EAG Working Plan for 2015 and the EAG Calendar for 2015, the Action plan of the Working group on counteraction of financing drug business, crime and terrorism (WGCF). The Plenary approved co-chairs for WGСF and WGEL, as well as WGEL, WGTA, WGTYP, WGСF and WGRS co-chairs reports.

The Plenary meeting approved the Procedures of the EAG 2nd Round of Mutual Evaluations.

The Plenary meeting approved the EAG Secretariat activity report for 2014 and made a decision to conduct an external audit of the Secretariat’s activities in 2015.
 
C. Future Activities of the EAG
The Plenary meeting discussed granting observer status and providing technical assistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Plenary expressed hope that Iran would further improve its national legal base on countering terrorism financing. The decision was made to put this issue on the table again at the 22nd Plenary in 2015.
 
D. Cooperation with International and Regional Organizations, which are the EAG Partners
The Plenary made a decision to grant observer status to the Anti-Terrorist Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States upon completion of the member states’ national consultations, if necessary.
The EAG Secretariat informed the Plenary on preparation for a joint typology workshop with MENAFATF and called upon all the participants to actively participate in the event.
 
E. The EAG Member States AML/CFT Statuses
India, China, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan provided information on national AML/CFT legislation amendments.

The Republic of Tajikistan
Considering the progress made it has been decided to remove the country from the EAG follow-up process.

The Kyrgyz Republic
Considering the progress made in addressing deficiencies on the Core and Key Recommendations the Plenary meeting decided to remove the Kyrgyz Republic from the EAG follow-up process.

Turkmenistan
During the reported period from November 2012 to November 2014, Turkmenistan achieved progress on the following Recommendations (5, 23, 6, 17, 29 and SR. IX).

Turkmenistan is encouraged to continue the work to improve the national AML/CFT system and address the existing deficiencies in the following Key and Core Recommendations: R. 5, R. 23, R. 26, R. 40 and Special Recommendation V.

22nd EAG Plenary shall consider the information of Turkmenistan on the adopted measures on the development of the national AML/CFT system as well as normative legal acts for the purposes of decision making on the timeframe of exit from the standard monitoring procedures.

In the framework of removal from the standard monitoring process, Turkmenistan is recommended to present the 6th (detailed) progress report during the 23rd EAG Plenary, on all Recommendations with the PC and NC ratings in November 2015.

The Republic of Uzbekistan
During the period from November 2012 to November 2014 under review, one may note the progress made by Uzbekistan to address existing deficiencies related to Key and Core Recommendations, in particular, R.5, R.10, R.23, R.40, and also in respect of R.6, R.8, R.15, R.17, R.25, R.29, R.30, R.32, R.33, SR.VI, SR.VIII, and SR. IX.

The Republic of Uzbekistan is encouraged to continue work to improve the national AML/CFT system and address existing deficiencies in the following Recommendations: R.5, R.10, R.23, R.40, SR.I, and in particular SR.III.
Uzbekistan should present interim information on the improvement of its national AML/CFT system to the 22nd Plenary in May 2015.

As part of the procedures for removal from standard monitoring regime, the Republic of Uzbekistan is required to submit 4th (detailed) follow-up report on all NC and PC rated recommendations, to the 23rd EAG Plenary meeting to be held in November 2015.

Voluntary Tax Compliance (VTC) programs
The Plenary considered the implementation of voluntary tax compliance programs in Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Kazakhstan. The analysis of the programs, performed by the FATF Secretariat for the Kyrgyz Republic and by the EAG Secretariat for the Republic of Kazakhstan, has not identified any non-compliance with the Four Basic Principles set out by FATF for national VTC programs.

The Secretariat will continue to monitor the situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan and conduct further review if any additional information is received.
 
F. Other
The Plenary conducted a special conference dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of the EAG and issues a Public Document detailing the conference’s deliberations.