DUSHANBE, December 9, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A conference to discuss ways to prevent corruption in Tajikistan is taking place in Dushanbe today, according to the UNDP Dushanbe Office.

Organized by the UNDP CO in Tajikistan in cooperation with Tajikistan’s Agency for State financial Control and Combating Corruption, the conference is timed to coincide with International Corruption Day, which is marked throughout the world on December 9.

The conference participants include representatives from the anticorruption agency, president’s executive office, governmental organizations as well as non-governmental sector and international organizations active in the country.

They are discussing the results of the corruption prevention activity in Tajikistan and further steps to strengthen fight against corruption in the country.

By resolution 58/4 of October 31 2003, the General Assembly designated 9 December as International Anti-Corruption Day.  This decision was taken in order to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in combating and preventing it.  The Assembly urged all States and competent regional economic integration organizations to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption as soon as possible in order to ensure its rapid entry into force.

To this day, the Convention has been signed by 140 states and 80 of them, including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Latvia, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, have ratified it so far.