Globalisation is in a process of transition. Five years after the global financial crisis erupted, some areas of ‘globalisation management’ – notably the financial sector – have been closely scrutinised, resulting in new regulation. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the global trading system more broadly, have received praise for helping to avoid the same degree of protectionism that undermined global efforts to recover from the great depression of the 1930s.
Tax evasion and tax avoidance feature highly on the agenda of this year’s meeting of leaders of the world’s richest countries starting today at Lough Erne. Recent reports on the low or no corporation tax paid by large companies, and on tax evasion by individuals, have made headlines. Evidence of the erosive effects of such practices on public revenues and their implications for development has led to mounting public demand for reform.
License: Creative Commons
Credit: Downing Street
Source: Flickr
On the 17-18 June, leaders from the G8 countries will gather at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. On the agenda are three key issues: advancing trade; ensuring tax compliance; promoting greater transparency.
In advance of the summit, ODI researchers will be responding to this agenda and providing an independent commentary on the Lough Erne accountability report, which reviews the G8's delivery against previous summit commitments.
The list of competing priorities for this year’s G8 summit was whittled down to three by David Cameron.
It’s easy to be cynical about G8 summits. But, as David Cameron prepares to host the annual meeting of leaders from the world’s richest countries in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, the British government has a unique opportunity to provide leadership on issues at the heart of global poverty and inequality – and to restore the credibility of the G8 in global economic governance.
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Credit: Guy Oliver
Source: IRIN
This roundtable explored the economic situation in low income countries (LICs) and the role of the International Monetary Fund.