By Jess Ma

Copyright scmp

Hong Kong’s police chief has met top security authorities from four countries in the region, including Cambodia and Singapore, to discuss closer collaboration in combating scams and enhancing training amid plans to expand an international law enforcement coalition.
Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming told the Post on Friday that the four meetings were held on the sidelines of the Global Public Security Cooperation Forum in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on Wednesday, as the force sought to ramp up engagement with overseas authorities.
“We are now trying to expand our overseas engagement strategy and trying to reach out to more Asean countries, as well as some belt and road countries, to see how we can collaborate more on different aspects,” he said.
In his meetings with officials from Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and South Korea, Chow discussed how law enforcement could cooperate better in addressing the threat of scams, as well as the city’s offerings on police training.
With Hong Kong due in November to host Interpol’s General Assembly, which will be attended by its 196 state members, Chow said Wednesday’s forum was a good opportunity to showcase China’s commitment to global law enforcement collaboration and for the city’s police force to prepare for hosting the conference.
“We will do our best to showcase our capability and determination, that we are still Asia’s finest [police force],” he said.

The police chief, who led a 10-member delegation to Jiangsu, said the discussions with South Korea and Singapore, which are both members of a 10-jurisdiction joint law enforcement platform called Frontier+, mainly centred on intelligence exchange about fighting scams.
“For South Korea and Singapore, we do share the same problem,” Chow said. “We will continue our efforts in Frontier+, and hopefully in areas of asset tracing and how to freeze the money.”
The commissioner also revealed there were plans to expand the Frontier+ alliance, a direct communication and information exchange platform for the crackdown on scams, to more countries.
The other alliance members are Australia, Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives, Macau and Indonesia.
As for Cambodia and Vietnam, Chow said the city discussed the possibility of offering training courses to law enforcement while intelligence sharing would be conducted on a case-by-case basis.
“For example, we have a new training course named the security and major event coordinating course,” Chow said. “This is more like our experience in organising huge events, say for example those in Kai Tak [Sports Park].”
Other areas Hong Kong could offer its expertise included financial investigations, as well as commercial crime and cybercrime, the police chief added.
Wednesday’s conference was attended by nearly 2,000 representatives from 120 countries, regions and international organisations.
The force also sent a five-member delegation to Interpol’s Asian Regional Conference in Singapore this week, where top officers met counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Korea and Germany to discuss law enforcement collaboration, in particular over scams and cybercrime.