CAIRO, July 3, (KUNA): The international conference on corruption fighting strategy started here Saturday under the sponsorship of the Arab Organization for Administrative Development (ARADO) with the participation of the state of Kuwait. The conference is attended by delegates representing 19 Arab countries and a number of European and Asian countries alongside relevant world organizations. Kuwait is represented in this conference by Assistant Undersecretary of the State Ministry for National Assembly Affairs Ahmad Barak Al-Haifi, Dr Mahmoud Abdulaziz Al-Jamal of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Kuwait university and Mrs. Basma Baher Al-Obaid of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports.

The training specialist at the PAYS Basma Al-Obaid asserted in a statement to KUNA that the conference is important for reviewing various notions in the field of administration creativity and innovation along with providing a national strategy for fighting corruption in the Arab countries. Further, Al-Obaid pointed to the significant slogan of the conference, “Creativity and Innovation in the Arab Administration”, besides the importance of fighting corruption as an issue that should be a topic of discussion in various ministries, Arab state bodies and private sector. She also hailed the interest of the Arab governments in partaking such conference that represents a sincere attempt for highlighting the corruption problem and the ways of eliminating its phenomena and practices.

Al-Obaid also expressed thanks for the ARADO, Transparency International Organization, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Arab Anti-Corruption Organization for arousing this important topic of corruption in the governmental and private business sectors in various countries.
Head of the conference’s preparatory committee and ARADO’s adviser Dr Basman Al-Faisali said in his opening address that ARADO is accustomed to hold an annual conference on the creativity and innovation in the Arab administration in order to culminate its efforts in serving development and catching up with modernization and development programs in the Arab countries. Al-Faisali drew attentions that a wide range of Arab countries declared their commitment to the articles of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption through initiating a series of legal reforms and devising many strategic plans for fighting corruption.

He also called for devising a national strategy for fighting corruption along with exercising rigorous control over administrative and financial dealings and the exercise of monitoring by civilian society organizations in this respect. The conference covers four themes that cover the acts of corruption and how to fight them in the Arab countries, the requirements of drawing up a national strategy for fighting corruption and the factors of success in implementing the national strategies for combating corruption. Finally, the anti-corruption gathering would review a number of Arab and world experience in the field of fighting corruption, especially those of OECD and the African Union (AU), besides the Egyptian experience in this respect.