Serbian Justice Minister Maja Popovic told the opening of the Global Conference on Harnessing Data to Improve Corruption Measurement that Serbia is firmly determined to prevent and eliminate corruption, the Justice Ministry said on Friday.

The two-day conference was organized in Vienna by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) and the OECD.

The Ministry press release said that Popovic told the conference that she believes corruption can be eliminated “to the greatest possible degree” in a developed institutional and non-institutional system of gathering, processing and analyzing data coupled with the efforts being taken to ensure economic, social and democratic development.

The Justice Minister said that “corruption devastates the substance of every state” and preventing and combating it is the condition for rule of law.

Serbia will continue promoting he measuring corruption based on reliable data as well as strengthening the institutional frameworks to fight corruption.