that includes policies on public finance management; setting up an independent judicial system; reforming public sector salaries; and opening forums for the media and the public to offer opinions on the management of public investment projects.8
The implementation of such measures is long overdue. Given the Communist Party’s determination to retain control, however, it is unlikely that the pace of change will match up to the expectations of foreign investors and donors.
Danny Richards (Economist Intelligence Unit, Britain) Further reading World Bank, ‘Vietnam – Combating Corruption’ (2000), www.worldbank.org.vn/publication/ pub_pdf/anticorup_e.pdf Tim Lindsey and Howard Dick, eds, Corruption in Asia – Part III, Vietnam (New South Wales: Federation Press, 2002) Notes 1. Agence France-Presse (France), 26 April 2004. 2. Reuters (Britain), 2 June 2003. 3. Reporters Sans Frontières, Vietnam – 2003 Annual Report, www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_ article=6491 4. VietnamNet online, 2 January 2004. 5. For an evaluation of the One-Stop Shop mechanism see ‘One-Stop Shops in Vietnam’, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, July 2003, www.deza.ch/ressources/product_7_en_ 625.pdf 6. Reuters (Britain), 1 December 2003. 7. See www.asiarisk.com 8. Vietnam News Agency (Vietnam), 1 April 2004.
Zimbabwe Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 score: 2.3 (114th out of 146 countries) Conventions: AU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption (signed November 2003; not yet ratified) UN Convention against Corruption (signed February 2004; not yet ratified) UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (signed December 2000; not yet ratified) Legal and institutional changes • In January 2004 the legislature enacted the Bank Use Promotion and Suppression of Money Laundering Act which came into operation a month later. The legislation is intended to promote the use of the banking system; to limit its abuse for the purpose of money laundering; and to aid the identification and confiscation of the proceeds of serious crime. The act, drafted in reaction to the crisis caused by a shortage of bank notes in 2003, provides for the creation of a unit in the Reserve Bank whose mandate is the detection
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