20th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – Abusive practices in global economic expansion
Mr. Ivković commenced his speech by acknowledging the dependence of virtually all governments and sovereigns on direct foreign investments. Such dependence, as witness by crystalized records of evidence, has been repeatedly weaponized by abusive governments and corrupt regimes to illicitly appropriate host countries’ essential structural elements, such as infrastructure, energy, and natural resources.
Mr. Ivković at that stage noted the critical importance of recognizing and strictly regulating illicit investments. While the definition of illicit investments depends on each country’s present challenges and structurally important industries, public international law makes a distinction between ab initio illicit investments, i.e., investments achieved through illicit means (e.g., corruption) and investments used to further illicit purposes or otherwise employing illicit means (e.g., predatory loans, environmental violations, human rights abuses, intellectual property crimes, national security relevant issues such as infrastructural control, energy independence, ownership over natural resources, etc.). If not addressed, both types of illicit investments may lead to significant limitations to each affected country’s sovereignty and independence. Therefore, Mr. Ivković invited the parliamentarians to confront the threat by examining and enacting legislation and forming administrative bodies which would prevent negative national security implications of foreign investments in domestic companies or operations. For those allied nations who do not have the political or economic power to confront abusive illicit investments singlehandedly, Mr. Ivković reiterated the importance of joining and protecting the alliances which could form a common defense mechanism.
