Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel has said that Nepal has made a significant stride towards developing a national system to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing over the last decade.

“Nepal is currently implementing National Stratagy on Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing 2011-2016,” he said, speaking at the annual APG (Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering), Typology and Capacity Building workshop which began on Monday. Representatives of 44 countries and over 10 international institutions are participating in the event that focuses on money laundering and terrorist financing through killing of wildlife and their transactions.

Moreover, Nepal has endorsed several international conventions, including that against organised crime, corruption and terrorist financing. As well as establishing an institution to investigate money-laundering and financial information unit to make information system, Nepal has also introduced a law that allows authorities to seize the wealth accumulated through money laundering activities, according to Minister Poudel.

Having made progress in these areas, Nepal has been kept out of the watch list by Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering body, for the last three years.

Nepal Rastra Bank Deputy Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari said that as anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism is a multi-faceted regime, the collective efforts could help moving towards the journey of full compliance of the related standards. “This will help us achieve our common objective of keeping our respective financial system protected from the abuse of money laundering and terrorist financing,” he said.