New York: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday met at the United Nations headquarters Qatar’s Attorney-General, H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Merri who is currently visiting New York to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation to combat corruption in the Arab region. The UN Chief praised Qatar’s efforts at the local and regional levels to combat the scourge of corruption which he said it undermines the economy and development efforts and adversely affect the daily lives of people around the world. Following the meeting, a signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding was held to establish an Office to support anti-corruption efforts in the Arab region through a regional specialised project to provide specialized technical assistance based on best international standards and practices. The office is the first of its kind in the Arab region and an important initiative to provide more efforts to promote transparency, fairness, the rule of law and fighting corruption. The Attorney General and the UN Assistant Secretary-General Amat Al Aleem Alsoswa signed the MoU, in the presence of high-level officials from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the delegation accompanying the Attorney General and Ambassador Sheikh Mishaal bin Hamad Al Thani, the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations. The Attorney General underscored the commitment of Qatar to support the fight against corruption and respect for the principles that express the firm conviction for the need to activate these efforts, and underlines that there is no room to cope with this destructive phenomenon (corruption) that turned into a significant international one, which finds wide international response through adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and its entry into force in 2005, where a number of its members had reached to more than 150 State Parties, including 16 Arab countries. Amat Al Aleem Alsoswa stressed the importance of this cooperation in support of better response to the aspirations of the Arab countries to a better future, stressing the significant role played by Qatar in support of such efforts, including support for the establishment of an international mechanism to review implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption within the framework of the Conference of States Parties, hosted in Doha in 2009. QNA

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