On March 20th and 21st, 2006, the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) - which was founded in November 2004 and is headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain - held its third Plenary in grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, chaired by the Republic of Egypt represented by Mr. Mahmoud Abdel Latif, and vice-chaired by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Republic of Tunisia, the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Republic of Syria, the Republic of Iraq, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait, the Lebanese Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Arab Islamic Republic of Mauritania and the Republic of Yemen attended the Plenary as member countries through their representatives;
The French Republic, the United Kingdom, the USA, the IMF, the World Bank, the GCC, FATF, UNODC and Egmont Group also attended as observers, through their representatives. His Excellency, the Egyptian Prime Minister, Dr. Ahmad Nazif, opened the Plenary that was attended by several Ministers, the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, representatives of AML/CFT stakeholders and some high-ranked officials.
The Plenary discussed various issues in the field of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the light of international standards. Some of the most important decisions taken are to adopt the 2005 annual report and approve of the 2006 budget. Besides, the members approved the schedule of mutual evaluation and asserted on the significance of updating mutual evaluation procedures in light of practice. Also, the plenary agreed to adopt the report drafted by the Secretariat about typologies, technical assistance, and training in AML/CFT and encourage member countries to emphasize on training. Furthermore, the Plenary accepted the application of Sudan to join the MENAFATF as a member and the application of Palestine to become an observer.
At the end, it had been agreed to hold the next Plenary in the State of Qatar from the 18th till the 20th of September 2006.