Five days after the Paris atrocity of Nov. 13, delegates to the first Southeast Asian Regional Summit to Counter Terrorism Financing held in Sydney pledged to help choke-off the funds that finance terrorism worldwide by further exploiting their technological advantage.

The summit, which was jointly hosted by Australia and Indonesia, issued “The Sydney Communiqué” that outlined concrete steps to be taken to combat terrorist financing worldwide with more urgency. It sought to maximise the use of financial intelligence to combat terrorism. Among the steps agreed upon was to produce the first regional terrorism financing risk assessment.

The assessment will develop an enhanced understanding of the drivers behind terrorism financing, including ideology and the growing terrorist use of social media for funding as it affects Southeast Asia. It will help to identify, target and disrupt terrorism’s centre of gravity and show where preventive measures can be strengthened.

The summit brought together some 150 officials and international experts from 20 countries and from multilateral organisations, including from those outside Asia. It was hosted by the financial intelligence units (FIUs) of Australia and Indonesia: the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and the Pusat Pelaporan Dan Analisis Transaksi Keuangan Indonesian (PPATK) or the Center for Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center.

Delegates to the summit also agreed to hold a Counter-terrorism Financing Summit annually. The next summit will be hosted by Indonesia in August 2016. In addition, a regional terrorism financing risk assessment will be prepared by Southeast Asian countries and Australia.

Delegates further agreed to establish a regional framework to help involved maximise intelligence value, detect and deter terrorist attacks and share information faster.

Spearheading this effort will be a task force that will develop a regional framework for improved financial intelligence sharing and analysis on terrorism financing. Its goal is to share information faster regionally, maximise intelligence value and provide earlier warning to detect networks and prevent plots manifesting as attacks.

Experts from regional government agencies, academia and the private sector will define common sets of definitions to ensure that the group can capitalise on the data, intelligence, technology and expertise.

AUSTRAC earlier reported that the number of financial transactions linked to terrorism tripled in 2014, or to 367 cases in 2014-15 from 118 reported in 2013-14. It estimated the total amount spent on aiding terrorism reached $53 million over the year. Most cases were from NSW and Victoria.

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