Mounting fears of another slowdown in the global economy call for bolder policy responses. Trade and investment are a case in point. The latest WTO forecasts suggest 2015 will be the fourth year running that global trade volumes grow less than 3%, barely at—or below—the rate of GDP growth. Before

COPARMEX, COMCE, BIAC, and the OECD are jointly hosting a one-day high-level conference in Mexico City on October 15 2015 to communicate to the government and business community how the evidence-based work on global value chains and trade in services matters for trade policy in Mexico and the Latin American region.

The workshop will discuss the first results of the OECD Secretariat’s work on integrating FDI statistics into the analysis of Global Value Chains (OECD-WTO Trade in Value Added Initiative) to better account for foreign ownership.

Let’s start with a quiz. Which country is the second biggest direct investor in China? Who are the largest investors in India and Russia? You probably won’t believe it, but the answers are

Latvia has improved its laws since acceding to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 2014. Yet serious personnel issues until recently as well as negative government commentary concerning KNAB, Latvia’s anti-corruption law enforcement agency, have cast doubts over its capacity to enforce those laws.

The OECD has produced assessments of country-specific investment strategies in G20 countries in order to improve the investment ecosystem, foster efficient infrastructure investment and support financing opportunities for SMEs. This booklet reproduces the highlights of these assessments which have been transmitted to G20 leaders for consideration at their Summit in November 2015..

This report on climate change disclosure in G20 countries takes stock of mandatory climate change reporting schemes in G20 countries and identifies commonalities and divergences between the various schemes.

Paris, 19-20 November 2015: Bringing together senior executives representing the world’s largest institutional investors, senior policy makers and regulators, debates focused on issues affecting long-term investment, including: asset allocation concepts; regulation; governance; energy and natural resources; and, brownfield and greenfield infrastructure.

International Anti-Corruption Day provides us all with a unique opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made over the past year in the global fight against corruption, but also to think about the work that remains to be done in the years ahead.

Both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the OECD New Approaches to Economic Challenges explicitly recognise that trade and investment are not goals in themselves, but are a means to an end. That desired end is stronger and more inclusive growth, better jobs for more people, and improved societal well-being.

Most investment treaties do not expressly address joint interpretations and thus leave the issue to more general rules. This paper addresses the general legal framework applicable to joint agreements by treaty parties about the interpretation of treaties. It outlines key concepts and distinctions, and considers effects on third parties.

This update report by the IMF and the OECD was delivered to G20 in February 2016.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has serious concerns regarding Belgium’s limited efforts to comply with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery expresses its serious concern with Finland’s continued failure to implement the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery expresses its serious concern regarding the situation of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) in Slovenia.

This OECD report lays an empirical foundation for structuring economic policies to facilitate Chile’s participation in global value chains and to maximise the associated benefits for national firms and workers.

Paris, 14 March 2016: Organised by the OECD-hosted Freedom of Investment Round-table, this conference will explore how governments are balancing investor protection and how to improve balance through new institutions.

16 March 2016, Paris: Chaired by the Italian Minister of Justice, Andrea Orlando, the OECD will host a Ministerial Meeting on the Anti-Bribery Convention to discuss measures to strengthen implementation of the Convention and to exchange ideas on combating foreign bribery and emerging issues.

A high-level Working Group mission will visit Buenos Aires on 26-27 April 2016 and meet senior Argentine government officials.

Singapore, 25 April 2016: This roundtable focused on key themes related to G20 work, in particular the views of the private sector on current work developed by the OECD for the G20 Presidency toward promoting more diversified and innovative infrastructure financing.

Four decades after their adoption, the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises have never been more relevant to ensuring that businesses behave responsibly, wherever they operate.

Scaling-up investment in renewable electricity is critical for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. Despite increasing cost-competitiveness, overall investment in renewables projects remains constrained by policy and market obstacles. These hinder development of a sufficient pipeline of bankable projects and affect the risk-return profile of renewable electricity projects.

Further structural reforms are needed to help the business sector boost productivity growth and overcome the key challenges of sluggish investment in advanced economies and excess capacity in emerging economies, according to a new OECD report.

A high-level Working Group mission will visit Tokyo on 29-30 June 2016 and meet senior Japanese government officials.

Shanghai, 9-10 July 2016: G20 Trade Ministers reinforced their "determination to promote inclusive, robust and sustainable trade and investment growth" with the adoption of the G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking.

The Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) is a non-prescriptive tool for improving investment policy for development. It helps governments to design and implement policy reforms to create a truly attractive, robust and competitive environment for domestic and foreign investment.

Foreign direct investment can play an important role in financing development, with multinational enterprises also providing employment, technology transfer and access to international markets. This chapter from the 2016 Development Co-operation report examines these trends, the main factors shaping them and their implications.

Many governments have expressed concerns about the uncertainty linked to the perceived inconsistency of treaty interpretation in Investor-State dispute settlement. This working paper looks at how governments can take action to improve the interpretation of investment treaties through consideration of the potential role of State-to-State dispute settlement in this area.

This joint EU-OECD programme supports Mediterranean governments to attract quality investment for job creation, local development, economic diversification and stability.

Middle Eastern and North African countries should press ahead with further economic and structural reforms to boost flagging trade and investment, restore public trust and create jobs for the region’s young population, the OECD told ministers from the region today.

Ireland still needs to make substantial progress on key recommendations issued three times since March 2007 by the OECD Working Group on Bribery with regard to improving its domestic criminal law as it applies to bribery by Irish individuals and companies in their international business transactions.

Ukraine has made considerable progress in the area of anti-corruption reform but faces significant challenges to implement some important tools for combating corruption, according to a recent OECD report.

Russia still needs to make substantial progress on key recommendations issued by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in 2012 and 2013.

Azerbaijan has made progress in preventing corruption in several sectors, such as public services delivery, traffic police and public education, and reforms have started in customs and business licencing. However, serious and complex corruption challenges have yet to be tackled, says a new OECD report.

La inversión pública en Colombia ha aumentado sustancialmente en los últimos años hasta alcanzar casi el 4% del PIB, una cifra superior a la media OCDE de 3.2%. Sin embargo, según indica un nuevo informe de la OCDE, para hacer frente a la brecha en infraestructuras y para superar las desigualdades territoriales será necesario que el país mantenga y amplíe sus esfuerzos en materia de inversión.

Co-organised by the OECD and the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the seminar focused on the policy implications of the increasingly interconnected global financial and economic system and the need for an open and orderly regime for capital flows in the context of the review of the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements.

Brandon L. Garrett is the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and author of Convicting the Innocent (2011) and Too Big to Jail (2014). These comments on corporate criminal liability are a contribution to a public consultation conducted by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

9 November 2016, Marrakesh - This COP22 side event will focus on the role of policies and domestic enabling conditions to encourage private investment in green infrastructure in developing countries, drawing on lessons learned from country-specific experiences in Jordan and Viet Nam.

This Working Group on Bribery consultation with the private sector and civil society will focus on how best to follow-up on OECD Anti-Bribery Ministerial Meeting.

8/2/2017 - The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector will help enterprises to identify and prevent potential negative impacts related to human rights, labour, the environment and corruption in garment and footwear supply chains worldwide.

Paris, 6 March 2016 - The 2017 Global Forum contributed to the broader policy debate about how to address globalisation failures from an international investment perspective. Debates addressed options for reforming the international investment policy regime across three dimensions: openness, responsibility and inclusiveness.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery commends Italy for the adoption of a Bill on 15 March, by the Italian Senate, which, if adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, would significantly extend the statute of limitations to allow more time to prosecute and sanction foreign bribery cases.

27/03/2017 - Ukraine has become the 47th country to adhere to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. The Declaration commits Ukraine to provide an open and transparent environment for international investment and to encourage the positive contribution foreign investment can make to economic and social progress.

“I am deeply saddened to learn about the tragic deaths of Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan, members of the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On behalf of my Organisation, I wish to convey our condolences to their families and colleagues from the UN and beyond, who had the pleasure of working with them."

An independent group of leading anti-corruption and integrity experts recommends doing more to enforce and develop anti-corruption standards and enhancing collaboration with other international organisations in a report on ways the OECD can strengthen its vital work in combating bribery and promoting integrity.

Lending volumes and credit conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have gradually improved, according to a new report from the OECD, but demand-side obstacles such as a lack of financial knowledge are contributing to holding back a stronger recovery.

The OECD Business and Finance Newsletter keeps you up-to-date on the latest highlights, information and analysis on business, finance and investment work led by the OECD.

This paper presents the findings of an international stocktaking of the regulatory frameworks that apply to institutional investment in different jurisdictions and how these frameworks are interpreted by institutional investors in terms of their ability or responsibility to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their governance processes.

‌‌On 23-24 February 2017, at the OECD Headquarters in Paris, this Workshop discussed the foundations to measuring business impacts on well-being through the creation of new measurement standards in close collaboration with the business sector, and as part of existing reporting practices that already transcend economic performance.

The Czech Republic must strengthen its efforts to detect, investigate and prosecute foreign bribery. Seventeen years after ratifying the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, the Czech Republic has yet to prosecute a case involving the bribery of foreign public officials.