Leaders from the Group of 20 most developed countries failed to maintain the solidarity showed during the worst moments of the downturn last year, when they were ready to hurriedly pump trillions of dollars into the world economy. The resulting wasteful spree dumped the industrialized countries deep in debt and looking desperately for a way out. The summit in Toronto exposed issues that are harder to resolve when many of the participants are emerging from the downturn at different speeds and with different priorities. Under the IMF scheme, each country has an allocation of a shadow IMF currency – known as SDRs. This currency can be converted into useable currencies such as dollars, euros or sterling. The amount of SDRs was dramatically increased by more than ten-fold on last year's summit, as if it were out of a magician's hat. This time leaders are weighting more constructive choices. But extremist throngs keep trying to disrupt these summit meetings and create more chaos.
Toronto, Jul 1.─ The G-20 Summit held in Toronto June 27 and 28 was heavy on promises and lean on concrete action items, notes the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development.
While the G20 expressed a strong desire to "close the development gap," increase transparency, and tackle corruption and money laundering, there was a notable lack of language indicating an understanding of the interconnected nature of these different problems.
"We are disappointed that there was not an acknowledgment of the importance of curtailing illicit financial outflows from developing countries in the official statement," said Global Financial Integrity director Raymond Baker.
"The G20 seems intent on increasing official development assistance and pumping money into other lending bodies for development work but the annual loss of one trillion dollars a year from developing countries will continue to dwarf development aid and undermine all efforts to foster robust and sustained economic development until corrective action is taken."
In September 2009 the Task Force prepared a comprehensive policy paper with recommendations for curtailing illicit financial outflows from developing countries based on combating corruption and money laundering, dismantling bank secrecy, and fostering more rigorous reporting by multinational corporations.Key policy recommendations include:
- Country-by-country reporting by multinational corporations of sales, profits, and taxes paid in all jurisdictions of operation;
- Reduce abusive transfer pricing, tax evasion;
- Require disclosure of the beneficial ownership of companies, and the beneficiaries of trusts and foundations;
- Automatic exchange of tax information;
- Stronger due diligence requirements on banks, better enforcement of these requirements;
- Harmonizing predicate offenses for money laundering ...
| España, a la altura de Zimbabue en trabas para abrir un negocio< Anterior | Siguiente >Consumer advocates cry victory on US Financial Reform Bill |
|---|
