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Distinguished guests,
Dear colleagues,
Friends all,
Welcome to this High-Level OECD Symposium on “Simplifying for Success.”
For over 25 years, the OECD has supported governments in designing and implementing effective, evidence-based regulatory frameworks, through our unique data, policy best practices and platforms for peer learning.
The Simplifying for Success Initiative builds on these efforts.
It brings together leaders from government, business, consumer groups and academia to exchange insights into how governments can achieve their regulatory objectives while making rules and processes simpler and less burdensome.
This initiative recognises that regulations are one of the key levers governments use to achieve policy goals.
Regulations help ensure well-functioning markets, safeguard financial stability, protect consumers and workers, and uphold environmental and health standards, among others.
Sound, effective regulations are also an essential tool for upholding the public interest and fostering trust in public institutions.
However, if they are not well-designed or well administered then regulatory frameworks can have unintended impacts, impose excessive costs on citizens and businesses and have an inappropriate and unnecessary negative impact on the economic growth outlook.
As governments introduce new measures on top of previous measures to address new or emerging challenges, they can add further complexity in consistencies and increase administrative burdens and inefficiencies.
Government officials in 25 out of 35 jurisdictions surveyed by the OECD’s Simplify for Success initiative agreed that their regulations are too burdensome today.
Officials believe that their regulatory frameworks are cost effective in only 4 out of 35 jurisdictions surveyed.
An even greater proportion of business organisations – in 27 out of 30 jurisdictions surveyed – agreed that regulations are too burdensome.
And business organisations in 16 out of 30 jurisdictions reported that complying with regulatory requirements is negatively affecting their growth.1
This can have significant economic consequences.
Ineffective and burdensome regulations can discourage innovation, competition and entrepreneurship, while reducing available resources for productive investment.
In contrast, alleviating regulatory burdens can be a powerful tool to unlock stronger growth.
Recent OECD analysis shows that efforts to lift anticompetitive regulations alone contributed 0.25 percentage points to productivity growth annually between 1995 and 2005.
This contribution fell to 0.06 percentage points between 2005 and 2023, as reform momentum slowed.
To regain the momentum, and develop simpler, more efficient, more procompetitive regulation, we see several key priorities for governments:
First, assessing whether existing rules are fit for purpose.
Ex post evaluations are a key tool for governments to assess whether rules are delivering on their objectives, and to continually improve service delivery.
However, while the OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance show that governments are making greater use of these types of reviews, 14 out of 38 countries do not require any form of ex-post assessment of regulations.
In addition to more systematic ex-post evaluations, governments can conduct targeted assessments and simplification initiatives in areas that are of particular concern.
For example, the OECD Simplifying for Success survey identifies sectors like construction and utilities as a top priority for simplification.
In terms of specific requirements, building permits, taxation, and regulatory reporting obligations are perceived by governments and businesses as the most burdensome.
For example, in 20 out of 30 surveyed countries, business representatives point to reporting costs as the main driver of regulatory burdens, ahead of direct compliance expenses and regulatory frameworks that frequently change.
Second, engaging with the full range of relevant stakeholders to ensure a sound understanding of the impacts of regulation, improve compliance and ultimately build greater trust in public institutions.
Analysis from our OECD Regulatory Outlook shows that 31 out of 38 OECD countries already systematically require public participation in rulemaking.
Governments are also increasingly adopting digital tools and extending minimum consultation periods to improve their engagement practices.
These efforts help build trust.
According to the OECD Trust Survey, approximately 69% of citizens who feel they have a say in government decisions trust their national government, compared to 22% among those who feel they do not have a say.
To further support citizens’ confidence in regulatory processes, governments can ensure they provide direct feedback to stakeholders after consultations, which only one third of OECD countries [14 out of 38] currently do.
Third, conducting broad-based reviews of overall regulatory burdens and costs to identify key priorities for further efforts.
Twenty-three OECD members reported having conducted an administrative burden-based regulatory review in the last five years – an important step to remove regulations that are excessively costly or ineffective.
There are significant opportunities to make greater use of these reviews, and act on their findings.
Towards this, the OECD’s Competition Assessment Toolkit is a practical resource for governments to analyse regulatory frameworks in a sector and identify pro-competitive alternatives.
And our Product Market Regulation Indicators provide a valuable evidence base for these efforts.
The indicators, which now cover 51 jurisdictions including all 38 OECD countries, help policymakers compare the competition friendliness of their product market regulation.
Our analysis finds that administrative requirements to set up a new business remain overly costly, complex and time-consuming.
Fourth, leveraging emerging technologies, including AI, to enhance the design, implementation and monitoring of regulations.
New technologies offer significant potential to improve the quality of regulatory policy design and implementation.
Digital tools can streamline processes, make it easier for individuals and businesses to access information on requirements, and enhance compliance monitoring efforts.
The OECD Recommendation for Agile Regulatory Governance to Harness Innovation provides guidance on adopting these tools.
This includes:
- Early and ongoing engagement with citizens to build trust, and with startups to harness their expertise;
- Enabling experimentation and testing under regulatory supervision to encourage responsible innovation; and
- Using data-driven approaches to identify, assess, and manage risks, and revising existing risk governance frameworks.
In conclusion,
The OECD is supporting governments in developing more efficient, flexible and streamlined regulatory frameworks.
This includes embedding simplification into the heart of regulatory policymaking, so that frameworks evolve rather than simply grow in response to emerging policy challenges.
Indeed, simplification is not just about removing rules or requirements — it is about smarter regulation that fosters growth and contributes to our societies.
Today’s Symposium is an opportunity to share experiences, exchange innovative practices, and identify future priorities to Simplify for Success, ultimately providing the foundation for stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive economies and societies.
My very best wishes for a positive, productive and successful Symposium.
Thank you.
1 Hungary, Czechia, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Portugal , Argentina, Ireland, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Thailand, Denmark, the Netherlands
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