The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is enhancing capacity on countering terrorist financing in Turkmenistan

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Regional Office for Central Asia  and UNODC Global Programme against Money Laundering (GPML) in co-operation with the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) launched a new multi-annual training programme on Countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) in Turkmenistan.

The first three-day online training course aimed at strengthening the capacity of Turkmenistan to counter terrorism financing was held on June 1-3, 2020. Considering the situation related to COVID-19 crisis, as well as, to comply with the requirements of self-isolation, the training was conducted online. The training gathered experts and practitioners from the Financial Monitoring Service under the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of National Security, and the General Prosecutor’s Office of Turkmenistan.

The CFT training programme aims at strengthening Turkmenistan’s compliance with international standards, UN Security Council Resolutions, in particular the Resolution 2462 (2019), the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)’s standards, and UN norms in countering terrorist financing.

The first training course emphasized the key role of inter-agency co-operation and importance of involving all relevant stakeholders in efforts to counter terrorist financing. Participants studied regional and international terrorism threats and learnt about the terrorism funding cycle.

In her opening speech Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative in Central Asia said that one of the UNODC Regional Office in Central Asia’s primary objective is to increase the capacity of the national law enforcement, financial intelligence units (FIU) and financial institutions to detect and combat terrorism financing, disrupt terrorist networks and recover proceeds of crime. UNODC remains ready to further support joint efforts and initiatives in the field of countering money laundering and terrorism financing in Turkmenistan.

The CFT training programme is focusing on the financial disruption of terrorist networks and on listing of terrorists and terrorist organizations pursuant to relevant UN sanctions regimes. The courses help participants to understand how to improve inter-agency co-operation and disrupt terrorist financial networks.

Mr. Chary Atayev, Acting Head of the UNODC Programme Office in Turkmenistan added that, currently, government bodies and the private sector are actively working to prepare Turkmenistan for its mutual assessment for compliance with the FATF international standards. In order to provide technical assistance and improve the effectiveness of the national framework for Anti-money laundering and Combating terrorism financing UNODC is implementing the CFT training programme.

The training course is implemented with the financial support of Norway and the Russian Federation, and technical support of the International Training and Methodological Center for Financial Monitoring of the Russian Federation.