On October 14, 2009, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the APEC ACT Corruption Prevention Seminar, which was held in Beijing.

In his speech, He said that taking positive efforts to prevent and punish the crime of corruption is of great significance in building up values and morals of honesty and integrity and promoting social progress and sustainable development. Against the backdrop that the international financial crisis continues to spread and the world's economic growth momentum remains weak, the strengthened anti-corruption cooperation among APEC members will help APEC economies create a favorable social environment for the early resumption of growth and comply with the common interests of all parties. In the process of promoting cooperation, all parties should respect each other, benefit each other and share anti-corruption results. At the same time, the parties should take a focused and results-oriented approach to strengthen cooperation in such areas as judicial assistance, extradition, recovery and return of corruption assets and provide developing member countries with technical and financial assistance.

The APEC ACT Corruption Prevention Seminar was co-sponsored by the Chinese and U.S. governments. The theme of the seminar is: Applying Anti-Corruption Principles, Preventing Conflicts of Interest. The 21 APEC economies, the World Bank, OECD, Asia-Pacific Anti-Corruption Action Plan and other international organizations sent delegations to the seminar. Ma Wen, head of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) and Minister of Supervision of China and Robert Cusick, Director of United States Office of Government Ethics also attended the opening ceremony.