The 7th edition of IACA`s Regional Summer Academy concluded on 25 November in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a festive closing ceremony. Thanks to generous financial contribution of the Siemens Integrity Initiative, 53 anti-corruption and compliance professionals, coming from 13 countries based in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia successfully completed an intensive, 7- day programme. The programme included discussions and interaction with peers and world-leading experts, lectures delivered by renowned experts and practitioners, a joyful and interactive team building activity as well as a panel discussion.
The Regional Summer Academy brought together professionals from a variety of backgrounds, including both public and private sectors, international organizations, civil society, and Academia. The lecturers came from Deloitte, Korea University, OECD, OLAF, the Singapore University of Social Sciences, SOAS University. Moreover, senior public officials from Austrian Central Office for Prosecuting Economic Crimes and Corruption, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Malaysian National Anti-Financial Crime Centre and Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau held lectures.
The programme successfully integrated theory with practice in anti-corruption and compliance fields. The topics ranged from Legal Frameworks for Fighting Corruption to New Technologies as well as Whistleblowing and Global Trends. Thanks to this interdisciplinary approach, the participants were able to enhance their understanding of the topics from a variety of perspectives including but not limited to legal, psychological, economic, and political. Above that, the interactive Roundtable Discussion was organized including both Regional Summer Academy and Regional Alumni Conference participants to provide the opportunity for them to expand their network while exploring the innovative topic- the Challenges of Fighting Corruption in an Era of Modern Technology.
The participants now join IACA´s alumni association which includes alumni from IACA´s previous Regional Summer Academies, which took place in Argentina (Latin America, 2015), Uganda (Eastern Africa, 2016), Kuwait (Middle East, 2017), China (East and Southeast Asia, 2018), the Republic of Korea (South and East Asia, 2019), and Brazil (Central and South America, 2019). Planning for future Regional Summer Academies is under way: The next Regional Summer Academy will take place in Sao Paolo, Brazil in March 2023. Moreover, IACA will organize a Regional Summer Academy on the African continent in 2023.