Clarie Lo, commissioner for narcotics of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), who is the overall coordinator of anti-drug and anti-money laundering policies, will carry out the duties of the FATF President from July 2001 to June 2002, said a spokesman for the Hong Kong government.

Welcoming the selection result, Secretary for Security of the SAR Regina Ip said "the Asian economic recovery inevitably heightened risks of increased money laundering through legal or illegal activities."

"Being one of the world's major financial centers with an effective anti-money laundering regime, Hong Kong is well placed to lead FATF in countering money laundering globally and assist other jurisdictions against such risks regionally," Ip said.

FATF is an international organization established alongside the OECD in Paris after a G-7 Summit in 1989 to examine and recommend anti-money laundering standards and promote anti-money laundering messages worldwide.

It comprises 29 member jurisdictions, which include the major financial centers of the world, and two regional organizations, namely the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Hong Kong has been a member of FATF since 1990.

As the FATF President, Hong Kong will play host to one of the three plenary meetings in 2001-2002.

Earlier in 2000, the FATF notoriously issued a list of sixteen offshore jurisdictions it said had inadequate defences against money-laundering, and the meeting in Madrid has been considering the actions taken by the 'named and shamed' jurisdictions to reform their supervisory practices. So far no jurisdiction has been removed from the list.