G20 LIVE: G20 leaders reaffirm OECD’s role in ensuring strong, sustainable and inclusive growth

ANTALYA, TURKEY – NOVEMBER 14 : Secretary General of OECD, Jose Angel Gurria gives a speech during a session on ‘Inequality and Income Sharing’ within the Labour 20 (L20) Summit held prior to the G20 Leaders’ Summit, in Antalya, Turkey on November 14, 2015. Antalya, top tourist attraction city in southern Turkey on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, will host the G20 Turkey Leaders Summit between November 15 and 16. Berk Özkan / Anadolu Agency

The leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies today endorsed overhauled global standards to crackdown on tax evasion and recognised the important contribution made by the OECD to help the Turkish presidency in achieving the goal of more inclusive growth.

At their Summit in Antalya, Turkey, the G20 leaders committed to the implementation of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project (BEPS) which closes gaps that allow corporate profits to “disappear” or to be artificially shifted to low or no tax environments. They called on the OECD to monitor progress and to develop, by early next year, an inclusive framework including the participation of developing economies on equal footing.

The leaders welcomed progress being made to boost transparency and fairness in the global tax system, reaffirming their commitments to ımplement automatic exchange of information   as early as 2017 and by 2018 at the latest.

The G20 called on the OECD, IMF and World Bank to continue to monitor their commitment to boost growth, create jobs and tackle inequality through the National Growth Strategies established at last year’s Brisbane Summit.

The OECD and the ILO have been tasked with assisting countries in monitoring implementation of a new G20 pledge to reduce the share of young people who are most at risk of being permanently excluded from the labour market and from education by 15% by 2025.

Speaking from Antalya, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said: “The comprehensive policy package which has been promoted by Turkey as President of the G20 – including skills, youth employment, job quality and tackling inequalities – represents real progress. The OECD will continue to play its part in helping to build a fairer and more inclusive global economy. ”

In presenting to the Summit their joint assessment of progress made so far in the Growth Strategies, the organisations said action by governments needs to be accelerated. The OECD has also helped develop the G20 Skills Strategy to tackle inequality as well as low productivity. A job quality framework has been produced to promote decent working conditions throughout G20 countries. The two organisations will also continue to monitor progress towards the G20 goal to increase women’s participation in the labour force.

In addition, the OECD is providing the G20 with analysis and policy recommendations to boost investment and stimulate business dynamism, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

With weak growth and a slowdown in emerging markets, spurring investment, particularly through private sector involvement, will be crucial. The leaders finalised the country-specific Investment Strategies developed with the OECD. Its analysis indicates that the strategies would contribute to lifting the aggregate investment to GDP ratio by an estimated 1 percentage point by 2018.

The OECD supported the G20’s Turkish presidency’s emphasis on SME development and the participation of poor developing countries in the global economy. It has provided analysis on improving the integration of both small businesses and poor countries into global value chains, drawing up G20/OECD principles on SME financing and G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. Both sets of principles were endorsed by the leaders.

OECD work on migration and climate change informed the debates at the Antalya summit. In order to support green finance and the fight against climate change, the OECD has delivered work on tracking climate finance as well as toolkits for channelling green investment.

Building on its experience analysing migration, the OECD is assessing the economic impact of the recent surge of refugees in Europe.

The Summit, overshadowed by the tragic attacks in Paris, two days before, devoted a special session and issued a separate statement on increasing international cooperation in countering terrorism.

As the Secretary-General of the Paris based Organisation, Mr Gurría said: “The impact of these atrocities is all the more poignant as Paris is literally our home, where we have our headquarters and where I along with the majority of over 2500 OECD staff and representatives of our 34 Member countries and their families live.”

“Our condolences, thoughts and prayers are most particularly with the families of the victims. This is a moment when we will all stand more united than ever in defence of the freedoms our democracies hold dear.”  (Read the OECD statement)

Further information on the OECD’s comprehensive contribution to the work of the G20 is available at www.oecd.org/G20

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