ASEAN SecGen Attends Inauguration of New INTERPOL Centre in Singapore

Welcoming the set-up of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI), H.E. Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEAN, said that the centre would complement ASEAN's work in this area. "More attention and resources are being devoted to combating cybercrime in the region," SG Minh said yesterday in Singapore. Speaking at a closed-door Ministerial Session preceding the inauguration ceremony, SG Minh said that despite the challenges resulting from the varying levels of technological advancement and knowledge, and law enforcement capabilities in ASEAN Member States, encouraging progress has been achieved.

The IGCI, a centre of excellence that will pool expertise and resources to combat cybercrime, seeks to identify trends, build capacity and foster cooperation among all stakeholders, including law enforcement, the private sector and the academia in the fight against this transnational threat.

"All ASEAN Member States have established Computer Emergency Response Teams and some Member States have established national authorities on cyber security. Good relations have also been established between the public and private sectors, an imperative step in combating cybercrime," SG Minh added.

The participants at the Ministerial Session, which was chaired by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, expressed their commitment to address cybercrime which they agreed was a growing threat and was causing a "paradigm shift" in the manner how nations and law enforcement agencies need to respond. The IGCI, they said, would be able to facilitate information exchange, operational coordination and training and capacity-building on a multi-stakeholder platform.

ASEAN Secretariat News