STORY: China's efforts of regional cooperation in combating cross-border telecom fraud "encouraging": UN official
SHOOTING TIME: Feb. 14, 2025
DATELINE: Feb. 17, 2025
LENGTH: 00:02:06
LOCATION: Bangkok
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Thailand-Myanmar border areas
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): BENEDIKT HOFMANN, Acting regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BENEDIKT HOFMANN, Acting regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): BENEDIKT HOFMANN, Acting regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific

STORYLINE:

The sophisticated and transnational nature of telecom fraud and related crimes requires concerted international efforts to address the challenges facing Southeast Asia, a United Nations official has said.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): BENEDIKT HOFMANN, Acting regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific
"We've really seen the situation when it comes to online scams and telecom fraud. It's really expanded a lot over the past few years."

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that annual economic losses from such scams in East and Southeast Asia range between 20 billion and 40 billion U.S. dollars.

The use of sophisticated tactics, including artificial intelligence, combined with the cross-border nature of these crimes, makes unilateral actions by individual countries insufficient, Hofmann said.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): BENEDIKT HOFMANN, Acting regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific
"Whether it's information sharing, whether it's operational coordination of police responses, whether it's mutual legal assistance and cooperation in criminal matters, it's really key for the countries in the region and beyond to get together and find common responses to this."

The U.N. official noted that recent cooperation between China and countries in the region has been "encouraging" and has created momentum for such collaboration.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): BENEDIKT HOFMANN, Acting regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific
"China has been very affected by this problem for quite a long time. And there's a lot that China has to offer from that experience and to other countries that are dealing with this in the region. And in that context, we've seen a lot of operational coordination, we've seen a lot of support coming from China to other countries in the region. And that is something that is very encouraging. What we hope to see more of also in the future is the broader effort by countries in the region that looks beyond police responses, beyond sort of the immediate effort of closing down a center, for example, but really look beyond the individual operations and look at how this problem can be addressed on a broader scale."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Bangkok.
(XHTV)