On 5 March 2021, a co-ordination meeting with the authorities of Turkmenistan was co-organised together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan aiming at discussing and identifying ways for effective co-operation in the areas of business integrity, fight against corruption, anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing (AML/CFT) in line with the authorities’ priorities. 

The meeting gathered representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Supreme Court, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Institute of State, Law and Democracy, as well as the Delegation of the European Union to Turkmenistan. The online meeting provided a platform for presenting and discussing the work plan of one of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme's actions “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” including its regional and country-specific dimensions. The team of the action provided an overview of the wide range of areas in which the authorities of Turkmenistan could benefit from the Council of Europe technical assistance such as anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, asset recovery systems and enhancing protection of the rights of entrepreneurs. In this regard, special emphasis was put on the fact that the presented activities will be tailor-made and fully streamlined with the country’s priorities. All present beneficiary institutions were therefore encouraged to identify the priority areas for which they would need the Council of Europe's technical assistance and expertise.

This activity was organised in the framework of the action “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” within the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, which is a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The action is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.