Central bank officials met yesterday with representatives from the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to discuss strategies on how to deal with the high risk of money laundering and financial terrorism in the country.

Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), explained during the meeting that the Cambodian government has worked on multiple strategies to prevent money laundering and strengthen the financial rule of law, leading to positive results.

“Cambodia continues to focus on cooperating with international organisations to combat money laundering and terrorism financing through both bilateral and multilateral efforts,” he said.

Earlier this month, Cambodia was listed at the sixth most at-risk country globally for illegal financing between 2014 and 2015 in the Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index. The report, published by the Basel Institute on Governance, put Cambodia in last place amongst other ASEAN countries.

Cambodia was first evaluated by the APG in 2007 and was then ranked as the third-riskiest country in the world for illegal financial activities. The report cited a lack of strategy and poor law enforcement mechanism as the main factors in the country’s poor performance.

APG Secretariat Elliot Kennedy said in his opening remarks at the meeting that Cambodia has made progress in its efforts to reduce the risk of illegal financial activities, but that much more needs to be done to eradicate the threats.

“I am sure that we can work together over the next couple of years and push forward very useful reforms in Cambodia,” he said.