Group photo of the Host and Guests of Honor of the Egmont Plenary Meeting
The opening ceremony of the 24th Egmont Group Plenary Meeting was held on 6th July 2017 (Thursday) at Conrad Macao Hotel, Cotai Strip, with the Macao Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) being the organizer of this meeting. The Egmont Group is a united body of Financial Intelligence Units around the world, which aims to facilitate the exchange of intelligence and cooperation among its members in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. The Egmont Group has more than 150 members FIUs. This is the first time the Egmont Group Plenary Meeting is held in Macao.
The opening ceremony was officiated by the Secretary for Economy and Finance of Macao SAR, Mr. Leong Vai Tac, the Chairman of the Egmont Group, Mr. Sergio Espinosa, and the Director of GIF, Ms. Ng Man Seong. Mr. Leong pointed out in his opening speech that GIF has been actively involved in the Egmont Group and has been signing cooperation agreements with overseas FIUs on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) since joining Egmont in 2009. Furthermore, the Macao SAR has launched or revised a series of laws and regulations relating AML/CFT from 2016 to 2017 to ensure that the legal framework is in line with international standards. It is an honor for Macao SAR and GIF to host the Egmont Group Plenary Meeting.
Over the years, the MSAR Government has established a comprehensive AML/CFT regime, and closely follow the international standards set by the FATF and APG. In 2015 Macao SAR completed its first national risk assessment on money laundering and terrorist financing, and set up a series of follow up actions according to its results. In addition, starting from last year, the MSAR strengthens the AML/CFT legal regime of Macao through the establishment of new laws or law amendments. They include the Law on Asset Freezing Regime which targets at the implementation of sanction measures of the UNSC Resolutions, and the amendments of the Law on Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and the Law on Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism which expands the definition of the predicate offences of money laundering, strengthens the enhanced due diligence measures, identifies the beneficial ownership, adopts risk-based internal control measures, and expands the definition of terrorism and terrorist financing so as to comply with international standards. The purpose of these laws is to ensure that the Macao economy will not be used as a place for illegal activities and fund transfers. On the other hand, the new Law on Tax Information Exchange Regime will also assist the attack of the crime of international tax evasion and the ML crime associated with it. Also, the Law on Control of the Cross-Border Transportation of Cash and Bearer Negotiable Instruments can effectively reduce the ML risk associated with the large amount of cash carried across borders.