SINGAPORE (Kyodo) Singapore will collaborate with Japan to help war-torn Afghanistan train its civil servants in combating corruption.
The training in anticorruption and public governance will be offered under an existing Japan-Singapore partnership program for joint technical assistance to developing countries, Singapore's Foreign Ministry said earlier in the week.
The ministry said this is the first time for the two countries to provide joint training in the area of anticorruption and public governance to Afghanistan.
Afghan officials are expected to come to Singapore for training, while Japan will provide some financing and also dispatch an expert on anticorruption to Singapore, other sources said.
"The program will strengthen the capacity of senior Afghan policymakers in the field of good governance and managing corruption, which are current key priority areas for the Afghan government," the Singaporean ministry said in a statement.
Singapore is known for its tough stance against corruption. It was ranked fourth in the world and first in Asia for having the least corruption in its economy in the World Competitiveness report issued last year by the Swiss-based IMD, one of the world's most eminent business schools.
The city-state has a special agency investigating such crimes that reports directly to the prime minister. About 95 percent of cases investigated annually end in a conviction.
The plan for Japan and Singapore to collaborate to provide the anticorruption and public governance training for Afghanistan was first unveiled by Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at the International Conference on Afghanistan held in Kabul on July 20.