Indore (Madhya Pradesh): India was praised for its efforts to implement measures against money laundering and terror financing on the first day of 41st plenary meeting of Eurasian Group (EAG), which began in Indore on Monday. During the five-day meeting, nine member countries, including India, will deliberate and chart out a road map to deal with growing challenges of cybercrimes, money laundering and financing of terrorism, the official said.

"In the first session of the meeting, representatives from member countries hailed India for getting the highest rating of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)," said Vivek Agrawal, additional secretary, revenue department of the Ministry of Finance, who is representing India at the meet. He said the FATF placed India in the category of "regular follow-up", the highest rating given by the independent inter-governmental body after assessing the country's efforts to implement measures to combat illegal activities such as money laundering and terror financing.

Talking to reporters, Agrawal said that in the upcoming sessions, member countries would discuss issues such as money laundering, illegal transactions of money, terrorism financing and cybercrimes and their solutions. He said representatives of the "fintech" industry will also discuss financial products that can trigger crime during one of the sessions. They will also ponder on legal ways to combat crimes and training law enforcers will need, he said. Agrawal said that based on the discussions held for three days, member countries will adopt a resolution during the plenary session of the meeting.

Public representatives, including Indore Lok Sabha MP Shankar Lalwani, state Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava and district magistrate Asheesh Singh participated in the welcome session of the meet. Lok Sabha MP Lalwani said there was a need for better coordination at the international level to deal with the growing challenges of cybercrimes, money laundering and terror financing, and a joint investigation team should be formed.

More than 150 representatives from member countries, India, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are participating in the event. In his speech in the inaugural session, Vijayvargiya was happy to note the progress made by India in its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing and credited the success to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Lalwani and Bhargava welcomed the delegates to Indore and invited them to experience the historical and rich cultural heritage of the city. During the day, other agenda items of various working groups were also discussed. Some of them are follow-up report of other Eurasian countries, typologies relating to money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF), plan to minimize ML/TF risks in the Eurasian Region. The 41st EAG plenary meetings will continue in Indore till November 29.