The work on BEPS Action 14 continues with today's publication of the seventh round of stage 1 peer review reports. Each report assesses a country's efforts to implement the Action 14 minimum standard as agreed to under the OECD/G20 BEPS Project.

As part of the ongoing work of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (Inclusive Framework), the OECD invites public comments on the Review of the BEPS Action 13 minimum standard.

The work on BEPS Action 14 continues with today's publication of the eighth round of stage 1 peer review reports. Each report assesses a country's efforts to implement the Action 14 minimum standard as agreed to under the OECD/G20 BEPS Project.

On 6 Feburary 2020, interested parties were invited to provide comments on the Review of the BEPS Action 13 minimum standard. The OECD is grateful to the commentators for their input and now publishes the public comments received.

Comprised of 34 Global Forum members, the Automatic Exchange of Information Peer Review Group (APRG) held its first meeting on 16-18 March 2020 to discuss key issues in ensuring that jurisdictions are putting in place what is required to deliver an effective AEOI Standard, as well as how the recent developments in relation to Covid-19 might impact expectations.

Progress continues with the implementation of the BEPS package, as the OECD releases the second peer review assessing countries’ efforts to implement the Action 6 minimum standard as agreed under the OECD/G20 BEPS Project.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) published today eight new peer review reports assessing compliance with the international standard on transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR).

This Investment Policy Review examines Tunisia's achievements in developing an open and transparent investment regime and its efforts to reduce restrictions on international investment.

This report provides a comparative overview of common standards and key features of specialised anti-corruption institutions and comprehensive descriptions of 19 anti-corruption institutions operating in different parts of the world, presented in a comparable framework.

This Investment Policy Review examines Mozambique's achievements in developing an open and transparent investment regime and its efforts to reduce restrictions on international investment.

The Malaysian government, in partnership with the OECD and ASEAN, has undertaken a review of its investment policies as part of an active programme of investment policy reforms to help revive both foreign and domestic investment.

This Investment Policy Review examines Tanzania's achievements in developing an open and transparent investment regime and its efforts to reduce restrictions on international investment.

This report is the first of a series of assessments on Colombian gold supply chains and aims to develop an initial approach and analysis for how risks outlined in Annex II of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas are relevant in the Colombian context.

This paper reviews alleged societal benefits and costs of International Investment Agreements (IIAs) as suggested by academia, governments, business and civil society. It sets out the wide range of issues that diverse actors have proposed in the context of assessing the societal benefits and costs of IIAs.

This report builds on national reviews of seven countries in Southeast Asia. It looks at common challenges across the region and at the interplay between regional initiatives and national reforms.

The Australian health system is a complex mix of federal and state government funding and responsibility, making it difficult for patients to navigate. Despite its complexity, Australia’s universal health system achieves good results relatively efficiently.

The growth rate in health spending per capita in Canada has slowed down markedly in recent years, being close to zero in real terms since 2011. Life expectancy in Canada is one year higher than the OECD average, but rising alcohol consumption and obesity rates are growing risk factors to health. Canada could further improve the quality of care in order to cope better with rising prevalence of chronic diseases.

Finland appears to have a high performing health system, with remarkable good quality in both primary and hospital care. The country also achieves good health status at relatively low level of health spending. Despite these advances, there are specific areas where improvements can be made such as preventing the spread of obesity and addressing gaps in mental health.

The French health care system performs relatively well. Health outcomes are better than the OECD average and citizens enjoy good access to care. However, France is lagging behind other OECD countries in some areas including for example antibiotics prescribing or alcohol consumption.

Italy’s indicators of health system outcomes and quality are consistently good. This is despite levels of health spending below other high-income OECD countries. However, Italy is lagging behind in some areas, like long-term care and prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Although Ireland has seen remarkable improvements in the health of its population in the last decades, several challenges lie ahead for its health system. Based on available OECD analyses, further progress could be made to promote efficient use of hospital resources, strengthen primary care, address high pharmaceutical spending and prevent the spread of risk factors including obesity and alcohol consumption.

Despite achieving near universal health coverage with a basic benefit package that all health payers must provide, health financing in Chile remains inefficient and inequitable. There is room for improving the system by moving towards a unified, equitable social security system for the entire population.

Although many health indicators are improving in Mexico, the country has the lowest life expectancy in the OECD. This is due to unhealthy lifestyles with higher risk factors to health leading to chronic diseases and mortality, but also to persisting barriers of access to high-quality health care services.

Belgium shows average health outcomes compared to other OECD countries. Life expectancy at birth is 80.7 years, just above the OECD average. Quality of care is fair, standing again near the OECD average. Health expenditure at 10.2% of GDP is higher than the OECD average of 1.3% points in 2013. Health policy in Belgium relies on shared responsibility of both the federal authorities and federated entities (regions and communities).

Between 2009 and 2013, public spending on health fell by EUR 5.2 billion – representing a 32% drop in real-terms. This reduction clearly represents a shock for the system to adsorb, even though it is clear that there were inefficiencies in the Greek system (for example, inappropriate prescribing, weak primary care, imbalances in the mix of health professionals).

Norway has an impressive and comprehensive health system, but it is facing several challenges over the coming years. The shift in the need for care from an ageing population will weigh heavily on the Norwegian health care system, demanding for more skilled health care personnel as well as strengthening of community care.

Israel has built a universal health system at relatively low-cost. Health spending was 7.5% of GDP in 2013, below the OECD average of 8.9% although the health spending share of GDP has been increasing rapidly, particularly in recent years. Israel has developed a sophisticated programme to monitor quality of primary care.

In the past 30 years Korea has gone from having a limited medical infrastructure, fragmented financing and limited population coverage, to a health care system characterised by universal coverage, one of the highest life expectancies in the world while still having one of the lowest levels of health expenditure among OECD countries.

This new series of OECD Reviews of Public Health provide in-depth analysis and policy recommendations to strengthen priority areas of countries’ public health systems, highlighting best practice examples that allow learning from shared experiences, and the spreading of innovative approaches.

Evaluation and assessment policies are key in Australia’s national school reform agenda. The Australian approach combines the development of goals, monitoring and reporting at national level with local evaluation and assessment practices shaped by jurisdiction-level school improvement frameworks

The Australian health system is a complex mix of federal and state government funding and responsibility, making it difficult for patients to navigate. Despite its complexity, Australia’s universal health system achieves good results relatively efficiently.

Data from the Japanese government suggest there are currently over 1 000 shipyards in Japan. Some of these yards are privately owned individual enterprises, while others form part of larger private or public companies that operate multiple yards. Japan’s shipbuilders exist within a wider maritime cluster that provides crucial upstream and downstream products and services.

This report summarises the legal and regulatory framework for transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes in Austria.

Austria has a higher share of immigrants in the total working-age population than many other OECD countries. At the same time, the framework for integration policy is less developed than in a number of other OECD countries. These are among the main findings of this review.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has released peer review reports assessing the tax systems of 13 jurisdictions for information exchange.

This article presents a brief overview of current financing difficulties for SMEs and policy measures to support SME lending during the crisis, and presents a literature review related to difficulties in SME’s access to finance during the crisis, against a background of a sharp decline in bank profitability and an erosion of bank capital that negatively affected lending.

Long-term savings and investments (LTSI) by individuals enhances their financial security while also supporting growth and financial development. Evidence shows that financial knowledge and skills are positively related to LTSI behaviour, and indicates a strong correlation between levels of financial literacy and retirement wealth accumulation.

This review of Colombia by the by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets examines Colombia’s position with respect to core principles related to financial systems.

This review of Latvia by the by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets examines Latvia’s position with respect to core principles related to financial systems.

This review of Latvia by the OECD Working Party of Governmental Experts on Insurance examines Latvia’s position with respect to core principles related to insurance systems.

This review of Lithuania by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets examines Lithuania’s position with respect to core principles related to financial systems.

A robust and resilient anti-money laundering and combating of terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regime is the first step towards being able to implement effective legal, regulatory and operational measures. This document describes recommendations made by the OECD in relation to Latvia’s efforts to strengthen its AML/CFT supervisory and control systems.

This report provides, for the Flemish community of Belgium, an independent analysis of major issues facing the educational evaluation and assessment framework, current policy initiatives, and possible future approaches.

This publication looks at regional innovation in Wallonia, Belgium, by examining the political context, governance issues and the role of innovation in the economy, along with regional innovation strategies to promote growth.

Belgium shows average health outcomes compared to other OECD countries. Life expectancy at birth is 80.7 years, just above the OECD average. Quality of care is fair, standing again near the OECD average. Health expenditure at 10.2% of GDP is higher than the OECD average of 1.3% points in 2013. Health policy in Belgium relies on shared responsibility of both the federal authorities and federated entities (regions and communities).

This paper reviews the empirical evidence on the link between environmental policy stringency and productivity growth, and the various channels through which such effects can take place.

This study reviews the existing literature on the link between economic policies and economic stability at the firm and household level. Based on firm-level and household-level data for a wide range of OECD countries, it also provides preliminary results on sources and patterns of microeconomic volatility.

Economists have traditionally been very cautious when studying the interaction between employment and health because of the two-way causal relationship between these two variables: health status influences the probability of being employed and, at the same time, working affects the health status.

The project provided recommendations to the city of Medellin and Antioquia to support the development of the local economy and includes a focus on how the innovative environment can be strengthened to support inclusion, entrepreneurship, SME, and local developmentto and how to better coordinate and integrate its policies with the national level.

This survey highlights the key results of the empirical literature concerning the costs of flexibility-enhancing reforms in product and labour markets.