NEW DELHI: Kolkata is set to host the third and final two-day meeting of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) under India’s presidency from Wednesday.
Over 154 delegates from G20 member countries, 10 invitee countries, and various international organisations will attend the meeting. This will be followed by the G20 Anti-Corruption Ministerial Meeting on August 12, 2023, which will be chaired by Dr Jitendra Singh, who is the Minister of State for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Minister of State for the Prime Minister’s Office; for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and for the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Space.
This will be the second-ever ministerial meeting of the G20 ACWG and the first in-person ACWG ministerial meeting. The deliberations at the ministerial level will impart a further political impetus to fighting corruption as ACWG plays a crucial role in leading international efforts to combat the same. Under India’s G20 presidency, ACWG has been able to achieve significant progress on anti-corruption cooperation with respect to action against fugitive economic offenders and subsequent return of assets, guided by the nine-point agenda for Action Against Fugitive Economic Offences and Asset Recovery presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to G20 member countries in 2018.
During the first and second ACWG meetings held in Gurugram and Rishikesh respectively, India was able to forge a consensus in G20 in order to advance the international anti-corruption agenda by finalising three outcome documents on important and sensitive issues.