Huguette Labelle, Chair of the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) Council, Highly Praised Korea’s Anti-Corruption Attainments During Her Visit to Korea

- The chair said that she has a high expectation for the successful hosting of the world’s largest global anti-corruption conference slated to be held in June this year in Seoul, Korea -

February 4, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

Huguette Labelle, the Chair of the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) Council, visited Korea to check the preparations and discuss the future plans, etc. for the 19th IACC scheduled to take place in June this year in Seoul, Korea.

The IACC is the world’s largest joint public-private anti-corruption forum, which is co-hosted by the Transparency International, an international non-governmental organization headquartered in Germany, and the government of the host country, and takes place every two years in a different region of the world since it was first held in Washington in 1983.

It is the second time for the Korean government to host the IACC after it hosted the 11th IACC in 2003.

The 19th IACC will take place for four days from the 2nd (Tue) to 5th (Fri) of June at COEX, Seoul to host 2,000 or more delegates from over 140 countries worldwide, including those from international organizations, the governments, civil society, the academia and the media.

Under the theme ‘Designing 2030: Truth, Trust and Transparency,’ the participants will discuss such topics as new strategies for society of trust, international collaboration to fight the dirty money, and new transparency standards for good governance, etc. during the Conference the main event of which is comprised of six to seven plenary sessions and more than 50 workshops.

Huguette Labelle who visited Korea this time is the Chair of the IACC Council that oversees the development of the main theme and programme of each Conference, and has formerly served as the Deputy Minister of Transport of Canada, the President of the Canadian International Development Agency and the Chair of the Board of Directors of Transparency International, etc. Currently serving as a member of the Advisory Group to the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Integrity and Anti-Corruption, she is one of the most influential figures in the international anti-corruption field.

During her stay in Korea, she will check the overall preparations for the Conference while discussing ways for cooperation with the Korean government represented by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC).

This afternoon she met the Chairperson of the ACRC Pak Un Jong in person and explained that Korea was able to improve its national transparency remarkably based on the strong public aspirations for a corruption-free nation and tough anti-corruption policies by the Korean government reflecting such aspirations, which she said was the main reason for Korea to be selected as the host country of the 19th IACC.

In fact, after the launch of the Moon administration, the Moon administration reinstalled the Anti-Corruption Policy Consultative Council building on its strong anti-corruption will, and implemented the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act without a hitch so that the law can take firm root in Korean society, while exerting all-out efforts to identify and address a broad range of pending corruption issues including hiring irregularities at public firms, college admission-related irregularities and tax-related corruption crimes. As a result of these efforts, Korea saw constant improvements in its score and ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by the Transparency International for three consecutive years, recording an all-time high score on the CPI for 2019 released on the 23rd of last month.

The Chair of the IACC Council Huguette Labelle stated that “As a national anti-corruption control tower in Korea, the role of the ACRC is crucially important, and the 19th IACC will be a great opportunity for Korea to introduce its anti-corruption achievements and outstanding anti-corruption policies to the world.”

The Chairperson of the ACRC Pak Un Jong said, “We will spur the preparations for the forthcoming 19th IACC for the remaining four months in order for the Conference to become a meaningful occasion for the countries around the globe to come together to share their respective anti-corruption experiences, learn lessons from each other, and prepare for the next new decade to take a leap forward in realizing transparent society.”

□ Conference Name: International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC)

□ Conference Character: IACC is the world’s biggest joint public-private international anti-corruption forum for bringing together anti-corruption related parties from countries worldwide for the exchange of information and international cooperation.

□ Co-Host: the government of the host country, Transparency International (TI)*

* TI is an NGO based in Germany, carrying out various anti-corruption initiatives (established in 1993)

※ Since the IACC was first held in 1983 in Washington, it takes place every two years, and TI began co-hosting the Conference from the 8th IACC (in 1997, Peru). (The 1st - 7th IACC had been hosted under the supervision of the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) and the U.S. Department of State)

□ Participants: 15,000~2,000 delegates from governments, the academia and the private sector, etc. from over 140 countries worldwide

※ VIPs (Ministers∙Vice Ministers) of each country, high-level officials such as chairpersons of international organizations, representatives from civil society, the academia and the private sector will be present at the Conference, and by convention, the head of the host country will deliver the keynote address at the opening ceremony.

※ Korea hosted the 11th IACC under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice in 2003, and the then-President Ro Moo Hyun attended the Conference.

□ Conference Program

○ Plenary Sessions: all the participants to take part in 6~8 plenary sessions

○ Workshops: 150~200 participants to take part in over 50 workshops

○ Side Events

- Series of Films for Transparency, Fair Play Anti-Corruption Concerts, and Young Journalists* Initiative, etc.

* Young journalists aged 35 or below from countries worldwide to be selected for the event-coverage and interviews with featured speakers the stories or pictures of which will be posted on the IACC blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo.

□ Overview of the Conference

○ Conference Name: International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC)

※ 18th IACC (Demark in 2018), 17th IACC (Panama in 2016), 11th IACC (Korea in 2003), 1st IACC (the US in 1983)

○ Period/Venue: Jun 2 (Tue) ∼ 5(Fri), 2020 / COEX, Seoul

※ International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA)* Assembly of Parties will be held on parallel from 1-2 June 2020.

* Established in 2011 for the purpose of anti-corruption education, training, research and cooperation as per the U.N. General Assembly resolution, the IACA is the only international anti-corruption organization that comprises a constituency of 79 parties (status as of 30 Nov. 2019).

○ Host: Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (representing the Korean government), Transparency International (TI)

○ Participants: over 2,000 delegates from the government, the academia, the private sector and media, etc. from over 140 countries worldwide

○ Theme: “Designing 2030: Truth, Trust and Transparency”

○ Program: Main event (opening/closing session, plenary sessions, workshops) and side events (Film festivals, Music Concerts, etc.)

□ Progress in Preparations

○ The proposal for hosting of the 19th IACC was deliberated and approved by the International Event Deliberation Committee (Aug. 2018)

○ A letter of intent for hosting the 19th IACC was submitted (Sep. 2018) and the next host country was pronounced (18th IACC in Denmark, Oct. 2018)

○ An MoU for hosting the Conference was signed by the ACRC, IACC Council, TI, and TI Korea (Apr. 2019)

○ 1st consultative meeting between relevant ministries and offices to support the hosting of the conference (Oct. 2019)

※ 11 ministries and offices participated, including the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Korea Tourism Organization, and the Incheon International Airport Corporation, etc.

○ Submission of workshop proposals on the 19th IACC began (1 Nov. - 15 Dec. 2019)

○ Early Bird Registration for the 19th IACC Participation kicked off (20 Dec. 2019 - 15 Apr. 2020)

□ What is CPI?

○ CPI is an index published every year by Transparency International (TI) to measure how corrupt public/political sector of a country or a territory is perceived to be (published since 1995)

※ Transparency International (TI): an NGO (based in Berlin, Germany) established in 1993 to prevent and control corruption with national chapters in more than 100 countries worldwide

※ Scores are assigned on a scale of 0-100 with 100 being the lowest level of corruption and 0 being the highest

□ Country Coverage & Methodology

○ 180 countries and territories were ranked in 2019 (annually updated)

○ TI itself does not carry out a survey to assess the perceptions of corruption, instead for the CPI calculations, it combines various data, i.e. disaggregated micro level data from various surveys that ask respondents questions about perceptions of corruption in the public/political sector, from a range of different sources such as the IMD (World Competitiveness Index) and WEF(Global Competitiveness Index), which are international organizations assessing national competitiveness or business investment environment in countries worldwide.

※ Data used for the CPI calculations differ from country to country, from year to year. 10 data from 9 data sources were used to compile the CPI 2019 for Korea.

○ CPI is determined by the combined results of executive opinion surveys and expert assessments

- (Survey) business executives (at Korean companies and foreign companies doing business in Korea)

- (Expert assessment) there is a Korean national expert engaging in the assessment, however, it is mostly carried out by experts in advanced western countries

○ CPI measures the extent of corruption in countries based on experts’ subjective perceptions of how pervasive corruption is in these countries, rather than based on objective data or how often these experts actually experienced corruption in these countries

□ The Result of the CPI 2019: Korea ranked 39th out of 180 countries and territories, with a score of 59 on a scale of 0 to 100 where 100 indicates the lowest level of corruption.

○ Korea improved its score by garnering 2 more points, and rose by 6 notches compared to the previous year, breaking into the high 30s in the global CPI ranking with an all-time high score (since 1995)

※ Among 36 OECD members, Korea came in the 27th place, rising 3 notches higher than the previous year, followed by Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, and Greece, etc. (OECD average: 67.8 points)

< Korea’s CPI Scores and Rankings (2008 - 2019) >

※ The TI established the new scale of 0-100 in 2012 as an update to its methodology.

□ Trends in the CPI Scores: Korea’s CPI score was on a steady rise from 2002 up to 2008 when it started to decline or stagnate, but thanks to the consistency shown in the anti-corruption reform drive and comprehensive anti-corruption measures, etc. by the Moon administration, international perceptions of corruption level in Korea have changed positively.

< Trends in CPI Scores of Korea >