13 – 14 June 2013, SEATCA held a first ever Consultation on Good Governance in Tobacco Control in Melaka, Malaysia. Resource persons and participants working on tobacco control and good governance from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand discussed various aspects of corruption and implementation of Article 5.3.

The consultation concluded that “tobacco industry interference is a form of corruption” and collaboration between TC and anti-corruption organizations is crucial to address this issue. One of the TC strategies to be implemented is to document information on TI interference and assist government agencies to online casino canada draft a code of conduct to protect the bureaucracy against TI interference.

The Consultation decided that SEATCA, the TC organizations and anti-corruption agencies will work on 1) launching a regional and national campaign to “say No to TI”, 2) follow-up with participating countries on strategies and develop the background primer, 3) mobilize national and international organizations to disengage with the tobacco industry, 4) develop a database on the TI and their allies and systematically track TI in the region, 5) support countries to develop a country plan of action including developing a code of conduct and 6) engage with lawyers working on tobacco control with the WPRO lawyers network.

Reference materials distribute during the consultation include the tobacco industry interference index, Article 5.3 Toolkit and implementation template, which are also available online from the SEATCA website.(W. Kalyanamitra)