By Park In-jae

The G20 Seoul Summit, a gathering of 20 developed and developing countries, ended successfully last month.

The summit, which started as a tentative consultation body to tide over economic crisis, was upgraded to the highest forum for international economic cooperation in September 2009 when it was held in Pittsburgh.

In the future, it will play a pivotal role for most issues necessary for international cooperation not only in the economic and financial fields but also in the energy development, climate change and anti-corruption sectors.

Corruption is a factor negatively affecting national development, regardless of whether in advanced or developing countries.

Under the common recognition in global society that corruption is closely related to economic crises and growth, G20 countries are expanding discussion on anti-corruption.

At the Pittsburgh summit, heads of state raised the necessity to prevent the illegal outflow of capital from developing countries through corrupt acts.

At the Toronto summit held in June, they also agreed on the necessity of preparing a concrete and effective policy recommendation for anti-corruption.

As a follow-up step, the "G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group" was established and the group prepared the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan through discussions.

The action plan contains content calling for G20 member countries' accession or ratification of major international anti-corruption agreements, including the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and a variety of steps necessary for bolstering international cooperation for anti-corruption.

Along with this, the plan included such steps to guarantee independence of anti-corruption organizations in the prevention and fight against corruption and to encourage the private sector's participation in the international anti-corruption efforts.

The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), a body in charge of anti-corruption policy in Korea, has been playing a leading role in international discussions on anti-corruption since it was designated as the chief delegate of the Korean side at the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group.

It carried out a mediator role between advanced and developing countries by stressing supports to cultivate G20 member countries' anti-corruption capacity in discussions of the anti-corruption working group.

Now, corruption is no longer a problem of a country so that we can effectively solve the issue by strengthening international cooperative system.

The ACRC has so far actively coped with the international anti-corruption rounds, including the UNCAC and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

In the future, it will also actively participate in anti-corruption discussions from the G20 dimension and expand international cooperation for anti-corruption, exerting best efforts to introduce Korea's anti-corruption policy to the world.

Clean society without corruption has been a prerequisite for solid growth since the economic crisis.

Now is the time for each sector of our society, including the public and private ones, to pay keen interest persistently to anti-corruption drive and make efforts to keep pace with the global trend to create a clean world.

The writer is vice chairman and secretary general of the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission.