The Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” in Central Asia (CA TAEC) supported the national competent institutions of Uzbekistan to improve their capacities in conducting financial investigations to combat economic crimes by organising a training activity in Tashkent on 3-4 April 2023.

During the two-day event, 32 investigators, prosecutors, and judges from the General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO), Financial Intelligence Unit under the GPO, Law Enforcement Academy, Ministry of Interior, State Customs Committee, and the Supreme Court learned the best practices and standards in other countries in planning financial investigations, data collection and analysis processes working on practical exercises for clarifying investigation tools and measures. The participants also used the opportunity to discuss with Council of Europe experts the challenges during interagency cooperation, the impact and importance of financial investigations and possible solutions to improve the current practices in information sharing between the Financial Intelligence Unit and law enforcement authorities.

The Project team had also bilateral meetings on 5 April 2023 with the representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO), the Law Enforcement Academy, Anti-Corruption Agency, Financial Intelligence Unit, and the Business Ombudsman for better coordination of the project workplan in the remaining implementation period.

This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” in the framework of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, 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, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan).