Vietnam’s anti-corruption department has retrieved more than US$1 billion from corruption and economic cases in 2018, the official Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday.

The Investigation Police Department on Economic, Corruption-related Crimes and Smuggling, under the Ministry of Public Security, has recovered nearly VND27 trillion ($1.16 billion) from graft and economic violations last year.

The figure represents nearly 50 percent of the total estimated damage caused by the violations and an 18 percentage point increase from the funds retrieved in 2017, the Vietnam News Agency said, citing statistics released by the department at a recent meeting.

Of the figure, nearly VND2.9 trillion ($126 million) was recovered from corruption cases.

Minister of Public Security To Lam commended the department’s staff for their efforts and spoke highly of their making progress in discovering economic and corruption crimes and in retrieving assets from these cases.

Still, shortcomings remained and the department should review them and use their findings to improve the fight against corruption and smuggling, the minister underlined.

Minister Lam said the year 2019 is set to be a key period in the fight against corruption and economic crimes, given Vietnam has integrated deeper into the global economy.

The anti-corruption department is therefore required to have an active, long-term vision for combating economic, corruption and smuggling crimes.

“The department should also focus on measures to speed up the investigation of key economic and corruption cases and the recovery of assets,” the Vietnam News Agency quoted the minister as saying.

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