Indonesia, Mauritius and Ukraine have formally requested accession to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Indonesia is a candidate country for OECD membership and is the first Southeast Asian economy to request accession to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
The Convention is a legally binding instrument requiring compliance with a range of comprehensive anti-bribery standards to promote stronger public and private sector integrity, with a focus on combatting foreign bribery. Compliance with the Convention is evaluated and monitored by the 46 Parties1 of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions.
The Working Group will now prepare the next steps in the process including the assessment of the legal and institutional frameworks of each of these three countries. Countries seeking accession are expected to contribute meaningfully to the Working Group’s mandate and programme of work through engagement in its meetings.
1 In April 2022, in response to the Russian Federation’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, the OECD Council suspended the participation of the Russian Federation in the Working Group on Bribery except for monitoring pursuant to Article 12 of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.