“All our actions need to be underpinned by our commitment to preserving our planet, our biodiversity and our climate”, Ban said.
Businesses with multiple units should be treated as one entity and their economic activity assessed to decide how much tax they pay and where, Stiglitz said in an interview in Addis Ababa on Sunday.
They vowed to work more closely with private and public sector partners to help mobilize the resources needed to meet the historic challenge of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, for his part, who also attended the opening session, said that 2015 should be a year “for global action”.
High profile corporate tax scandals and the need to boost fiscal revenues in developing countries because of tighter donor budgets mean there is growing momentum for a new tax body, Stiglitz said. “It is only by working together that we can seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity in Addis Ababa today, and beyond”, he concluded. Development experts say achieving the U.N.’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals will cost more than $3 trillion a year.
Tax evasion, money laundering, bribery and misuse of the transfer pricing rules also lead to huge outflows of money from poor countries – $947 billion in 2011 alone. Now we have a responsibility to find new ways to leverage such generosity to crowd in private sector funding. “So, we hope to be a voice for and conduit for a collective commitment to mobilize diverse financial resources”.
The SDGs – set to be endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in September – will replace the eight Millenium Development Goals that had helped focus attention on the needs of poor nations for the past 15 years. According to GlobalPost, Africa holds “33 out of the world’s 49 least developed countries”, but after investment in public services and in infrastructure, Addis Ababa is becoming a “model for development”. For each dollar invested by its shareholders, MDBs are able to commit $2-$5 in new financing each year. We do this by making smart use of our balance sheets and focusing on growth.
In the effort to greatly expand financing for development, one of the most promising areas is to increase domestic resource mobilization.
During the summit, however, developing nations were forced to abandon their push to create a global tax authority.
They also decided to strengthen the financing for development follow-up process to ensure that no country is left behind, including by establishing an annual financing for development forum and an inter-agency task force which will report annually on progress in implementing the FFD outcomes.
A key taxation issue that affects developing countries is how multinational companies’ profits from their operations taxed and what should be these nations’ fair share.
The draft outcome document, which is still under negotiation, presents an ambitious financing framework “that includes concrete policy commitments in at least six crucial areas, beginning with a new social compact for quality investment.
Now is time to translate the best ideas and expertise of our institutions into action.
The Malaria segment will discuss the new World Health Assembly endorsed “Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030″ and the ‘roll back malaria partnership’s Action and Investment to defeat Malaria 2016-2030.’
Source: dispatchtimes.com
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