Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed grave concern that most of Bangladesh’s trade and investment partner countries consistently fail to take action against corruption in international trade.

They also alerted the government, urging it to be vigilant and take all preventive measures against corruption in foreign trade and investments.

Citing a report titled “Exporting Corruption 2022: Assessment of the Implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention” published by the Berlin IT Secretariat on October 11, they urged countries to address weaknesses in their relevant laws to fix and to observe strict regulations enforcement. .

The biennial report assessed the performance of 47 major global exporters, of which 43 were parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and four other major global exporters: China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore.

According to the report’s main findings, 20 of the countries surveyed, which collectively account for nearly 40% of annual global exports, had little or no action against foreign bribery during the period under review.

The executive director of the TIB, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, quoted him as saying the most important thing for Bangladesh is that the defaulting countries included some of Bangladesh’s key trade and investment partners such as India, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. .

“It is deeply disappointing that our trade and investment are so worryingly exposed to corruption due to the continued failure of our partner countries, many of whom ironically rank higher than us on the most credible corruption indicators available internationally. » .

“We hope that they can do everything in their power to ensure that their corruption is no longer exported to countries like ours. »

“We also call on our government to exercise constant vigilance to ensure all measures are taken to prevent illicit transactions fueled by corruption in our international trade and investment relationships. »

TI’s report only ranks Switzerland and the United States among the top performers, albeit far from perfect.

The worst countries are Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey.

Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and Sweden are in the second worst category of limited players. while middling performers include Australia, France, Germany, Norway and the UK.