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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This collection compiles the contributions of senior policy experts, academics, and economic practitioners on developments in the financial integration and financial regulation of cross-border capital flows since the 2008 global financial crisis at the OECD High-Level Seminar “Open and Orderly Capital Movements” held in October 2016.

There is no shortage of capital available globally to finance renewable-energy projects. The financial sector encompasses more than €100 trillion of assets. So how is it that investment in renewable energy is not flowing faster? This article by OECD policy analyst Geraldine Ang proposes responses to the trillion-dollar question.

Kyiv, 24-27 July 2017: The OECD, within the framework of the OECD Anti-Corruption Project for Ukraine, and in cooperation with Ukraine's Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) and the Council of Europe (CoE), has conducted a four-day training for the first recruits of ARMA.

Successfully attracting investment and innovation in renewable energy requires not only core climate policies, such as pricing carbon, but also a focus on the broader investment environment. Based on new research from the OECD, this article reviews some of the main factors holding back investment and innovation in renewable energy and looks at what governments can do to take action.

Evidence on the role played by investment in global value chains (GVCs) can assist policy work on GVCs, trade, investment and development. Drawing on new and improved measures of trade and investment, these country notes provide relevant statistical information from OECD databases on trade, investment, the activities of multinational enterprises and global value chains.

G20 Leaders are firmly committed to open trade and investment and to resisting protectionism in all its forms. They have mandated WTO, OECD and UNCTAD – the leading international organisations in the area of international trade and investment policies – to monitor policy developments and report publicly on these commitments.

The “Freedom of Investment" (FOI) process hosted by the OECD Investment Committee monitors investment policy developments in the 58 economies that participate in the process. This report covers investment measures taken between 16 February 2017 and 15 September 2017.

This enforcement data includes the number of criminal, administrative and civil cases of foreign bribery that have resulted in a final disposition, such as a criminal conviction or acquittal, or similar findings under an administrative or civil procedure.

Compensation for adjudicators is generally considered as a core issue for judicial independence and for attracting good judges in the institutional design for courts. This paper examines compensation systems for adjudicators and dispute settlement administrators in investor-state dispute settlement. The paper uses in part a comparative perspective based on approaches in domestic courts in advanced economies.

Lithuania has taken significant steps to strengthen its legislative framework to combat foreign bribery. Yet further efforts are needed to ensure effective enforcement of anti-bribery laws with regard to corporate liability and imposing sanctions for foreign bribery, including confiscation, according to a new report by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

Australia has stepped up its enforcement of foreign bribery since 2012, when the OECD Working Group on Bribery last evaluated Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, with seven convictions in two cases and 19 ongoing investigations.

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.

In the wake of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in 2013, initiatives to strengthen regulation of global supply chains in the textile and garment sector have multiplied. Tackling the issues involved requires sustained collaboration among industry, government, worker organisations and civil society. This project promotes such collaboration as well as the harmonisation of existing standards in the sector.

When companies involve stakeholders, such as local communities, in their decision making, it enables them to identify, and account for the impacts of their activities, and contribute to positive social and economic development. To address the challenges raised when engaging with stakeholders, the OECD is preparing a user guide on how to undertake due diligence in engaging with stakeholders for mining, oil and gas enterprises.

16 February 2018 - OECD and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a pilot project in Paris today to kick-start the practical application of the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains with 30 leading enterprises.

As part of the implementation strategy for the recently adopted OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector, the OECD is conducting a series of surveys that target SMEs operating within the sector.

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.

Paris, 12 March 2018 - The fourth annual OECD Investment Treaty Conference addressed treaty shopping -- a controversial investment treaty issue of policy interest for many governments and stakeholders -- and explored tools to help interested governments improve their investment treaty policies.

The consultation on appointing authorities and the selection of arbitrators in investor-state dispute settlement paper and comments received are being made available in order to foster informed public and inter-governmental debate.

The OECD Due Diligence Guidance is being used as the basis and benchmark by many industry initiatives created to ensure the responsible sourcing of minerals. This report presents the findings of a pilot alignment assessment of five industry programmes against the recommendations of the OECD Guidance to gauge the coherence, effectiveness and credibility of these initiatives.

This paper explores the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the low-carbon transition in OECD and G20 countries. It tracks GHG emissions and energy investments and analyses the impact of on investments in renewable electricity. A descriptive analysis of SOEs’ role in the electricity sector shows the importance of SOEs, including investments in both renewables and fossil-fuel-based electricity generation.

Many governments seek to promote and facilitate inward investments that they expect will benefit their economy. This paper looks at the merits of an international framework to facilitate investment in support of sustainable and inclusive growth.