Global Forum regional initiatives’ annual meetings highlight recent progress and pave way for future activities

 

16/11/2021 - Organised by the Global Forum Secretariat and held virtually on 15 November 2021, the Africa Initiative’s 10th annual meeting brought together more than 100 delegates from 26 African countries and 6 organisations to reflect on the progress made on transparency and exchange of information in 2021, as reflected in the meeting’s Statement of Outcomes.

Delegates lauded the initiative for raising political awareness and commitment to advance the transparency agenda in Africa. They welcomed Algeria as the 33^rd member of the Africa Initiative and Rwanda as the 32^nd signatory of the Yaoundé Declaration. Finally, they extended by one year the mandate of Mr Githii Mburu, Commissioner General, Kenya Revenue Authority, and Mr Edward Kieswetter, Commissioner, South African Revenue Service respectively as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Africa Initiative.

The 5th meeting of the Punta del Este Declaration took place on 16 November 2021 and was attented by 90 delegates, including representatives from 15 signatories, 1 observer and 3 regional partners.

Delegates welcomed Mexico and El Salvador as the 14^th and 15^th signatories of the Declaration. They saluted Latin American countries’ increased adherence to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and the progress made towards the implementation of the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information standard. They also discussed the study on wider use of treaty-exchanged information in Latin America, and welcomed the recommendations for future work in the area. Detailed conclusions from the meeting can be found in the Statement of Outcomes.

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.

For more information, please contact gftaxcooperation@oecd.org.