VADUZ – On October 18 and 19, 2021, a conference will take place in Liechtenstein as part of the “Liechtenstein Initiative on Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking” (FAST), which will focus on the review of the initiative. The conference brings together relevant actors from home and abroad who are participating in the implementation of FAST.

Over 40 million people today live in slavery-like circumstances. It generates annual revenues of US $ 150 billion. As a contribution to remembering the UN Agenda 2030, Liechtenstein launched the “Liechtenstein Initiative on Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking” (FAST). It is a public-private partnership that puts the global financial sector at the center of the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking.

FAST was launched by the permanent representation of Liechtenstein to the UN in New York.

Successes and potential for improvement

The conference taking place on Monday and Tuesday shows in particular where there is a need for improvement in the implementation of FAST and which next steps will be taken, when, in order to achieve even more impact with the initiative, as the government announced on Monday.

At the same time, FAST can already point to concrete successes. For example, a certificate for due diligence officers was drawn up as part of FAST, which has now been completed by over 10,000 financial experts. In addition, more than 2,000 trafficked persons were given access to banking services again. At the same time, FAST supports an investment alliance in avoiding investments in problematic projects. Allianz manages $ 9 billion in assets.

What is Liechtenstein actually doing?

In order to bring Liechtenstein’s foreign policy commitment in the field of combating modern slavery closer to the Liechtenstein population, government councilor Dominique Hasler surprised the FAST progress on Monday, October 18, as part of a public event at the University of Liechtenstein. The well-attended sector event brought together high-level players from the private sector and the public sector.

Government councilor Dominique Hasler saw FAST in the context of the new government program under the motto “Sustainable. Reliable. Formative.” stands: “It is a concern of the government to intensify the cooperation with private actors and to advance joint projects. FAST is a prime example of such cooperation”, Government Councilor Hasler is quoted in the broadcast.

The FAST project director, Daniel Thelesklaf, then went into detail about the successes and the next FAST implementation steps. A victim of human trafficking also gave personal insights and explained how to detect cash flows that originate from human traffickers. A discussion also took place on the central role of the financial sector in combating these crimes.