Browse by: "2024"

This review assesses the climate for domestic and foreign investment in Mauritius. It discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by the government in its reform efforts. Capitalising on the OECD Policy Framework for Investment and the OECD Foreign Direct Investment Qualities Policy Toolkit, this review explores trends and qualities in foreign investment, development successes and productivity challenges, investment policy, investment promotion and facilitation, and investment incentives. The review highlights potential reform priorities to help Mauritius fulfil its development ambitions that align with its commitment to comply with the principles of openness, transparency and non discrimination. This report also helps Mauritius, as a new Adherent to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, to promote greater investment policy transparency, as well as responsible business conduct.

Les technologies numériques transforment pratiquement tous les aspects de l’économie, et le commerce international ne fait pas exception. Les entreprises et les ménages passent de plus en plus de commandes en ligne. De nombreux services qui exigeaient d’ordinaire une proximité entre producteurs et consommateurs sont désormais proposés à distance. Les plateformes en ligne jouent un rôle de plus en plus important dans le rapprochement de l’offre et de la demande et facilitent les transactions économiques. Le numérique transforme la façon dont les produits sont achetés et livrés. Pour autant, cette évolution transparaît très peu dans les statistiques macroéconomiques traditionnelles, qui se concentrent sur ce qui est produit et par qui. En dernier ressort, cette absence de visibilité gêne l’élaboration des politiques et peut donner l’impression que l’économie n’est pas mesurée avec précision. Ce Manuel a pour objet d’aider les statisticiens à répondre aux besoins des décideurs de s’appuyer sur de meilleurs éléments statistiques concernant le commerce numérique. Si la politique commerciale internationale semble le domaine de l’action publique pour lequel il est essentiel de disposer de données exhaustives et comparables, le commerce numérique a des incidences sur de nombreux autres domaines, aux niveaux national comme international, et il est influencé par ces domaines, qu’il s’agisse de la concurrence, de la fiscalité, du développement ou de la croissance économique.

Le système multilatéral canalise une part croissante de l’aide publique au développement (APD), un signe de son importance grandissante dans un monde marqué par de multiples crises. Fortement sollicité ces dernières années pour répondre à un nombre croissant de défis humanitaires et de développement, ce système a montré certaines de ses limites, d’où le programme de réformes en cours visant à étendre ses capacités. Cette quatrième édition du Rapport sur le financement multilatéral du développement analyse les flux d’aide dirigés vers et en provenance du système multilatéral de développement et évalue l’impact des réformes en cours. Il appelle à trouver un meilleur équilibre entre le recours croissant à l’innovation financière pour augmenter la capacité du système et la nécessité de préserver sa capacité à fournir des financements concessionnels, et propose des solutions pour préparer le système aux défis de l’avenir. Cette édition est enrichie de visualisations de données en ligne montrant comment les membres du Comité d’aide au développement de l’OCDE utilisent le système multilatéral.

The multilateral system channels a growing share of official development assistance (ODA), reflecting its increasing significance in an era of overlapping crises and development challenges. However, as the system is pressed to address an expanding array of humanitarian and development issues, its limitations are becoming apparent, prompting a strong push for reforms to enhance its capacity. This fourth edition of the Multilateral Development Finance report sheds light on the aid flows directed to and from the multilateral development system and assesses the impact of ongoing reforms. Highlighting the need to manage the risky trade-offs introduced by recent evolutions, such as the growing reliance on financial innovation, the report proposes solutions to make the system fit for the future. This edition is enriched with online data visualisations showing how members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) use the multilateral system.

The OECD has developed a database containing information on export restrictions on staple crops from 2007 onwards. This database provides detailed information for country-specific analysis and presents the information in an aggregate way so as to allow comparisons across countries, measures, and commodities. The structure of the database allows for tracking the evolution of these export restrictions over time.

Relative to its population, Iceland experienced the largest inflow of immigrants over the past decade of any OECD country. Four out of five immigrants in Iceland have come from EU and EFTA countries, although there has been a recent increase in humanitarian arrivals. Employment rates are the highest in the OECD, for both men and women, reflecting the recent and labour market oriented nature of most immigration to Iceland. However, immigrants’ skills are often not well used, as witnessed by the high rate of formal overqualification. What is more, immigrants’ language skills are poor in international comparison and there is evidence of growing settlement of immigrants. Against this backdrop, Iceland is at a turning point in its integration framework, and seeks to develop a comprehensive integration policy for the first time. This review, the fifth in the series Working Together for Integration, provides an in depth analysis of the Icelandic integration system, highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for improvement. Earlier reviews in this series looked at integration in Sweden (2016), Finland (2018), Norway (2022) and Flanders (2023).

This reference guide on Organization presents the critical features to be considered in designing the organizational arrangements for a tax administration. It sets out the general principles and good practice of organizational design and describes common organizational structures adopted by tax administrations. It is important to note that organizational design is more than changing the organizational chart - it facilitates thinking on how, where, and when work across an organization is done. This guide is divided into six chapters highlighting the framework for organizational design, organizational models, the role of headquarters, field operations, and specialized units as well as the impact of new tax administration responsibilities on organizational design. It is part of a series of Virtual Training to Advance Revenue Administration (VITARA) reference guides that have been developed based on the content of the VITARA online modules.

In the context of a series of surveys conducted as part of the OECD’s “Surveys on Willingness-to-Pay to Avoid Negative Chemicals-Related Health Impacts” (SWACHE) project that supports the socio-economic analysis of chemicals, a series of questions were included about the respondents’ attitudes towards their exposure to harmful chemicals and the need for action by governments and industry to reduce exposure to harmful substances. Responses to the attitudinal questions show that the public is generally aware of the hazards of chemicals and how they can be exposed and are taking action in their everyday lives to reduce exposure. Respondents expressed a moderate amount of uncertainty whether harmful substances were sufficiently regulated in their country and there was considerable variation among countries in confidence of their country’s regulation. There was, however, overwhelming support for stronger government and business and industry action to reduce the presence of harmful chemicals in products of daily use as well as their emission to the environment.

Building on the OECD Guidance on Key Considerations for the Identification and Selection of Safer Chemical Alternatives, this report describes the results of a landscape study of sustainability attributes used by companies to guide chemical and material selection decisions. Results outline the range of sustainability attributes being considered, factors guiding the choice of standards and metrics used, as well as lessons learned in terms of challenges, needs and opportunities in the use and interpretation of a range of sustainability impacts to support chemical/material selection decisions. Companies are at various stages, given their value chain position and individual circumstances, in considering sustainability attributes in their chemical and material selection decisions, whether for the design of new chemistries, industrial processes or industrial/consumer products. Companies noted that sustainability attributes were not often considered in chemical substitution efforts given that regulatory and market-based chemical restrictions are primary risk-driven. Future guidance development to establish a minimum and recommended set of sustainable attributes should be flexible to the company/sector/product context as well as specific standards or metrics that could be used to evaluate them. Guidance should also be supportive of chemical-level innovation and selection decisions and aligned with forthcoming mandatory sustainability reporting requirements.

Des systèmes de santé résilients supposent des chaînes d’approvisionnement en produits médicaux sûres. Or ces chaînes sont complexes et internationalisées, et font souvent intervenir de nombreux fournisseurs. La pandémie de COVID-19, pendant laquelle ont coïncidé une hausse sans précédent de la demande et des interruptions dans l’offre et les flux commerciaux, a accentué les pénuries existantes et de plus en plus fréquentes de médicaments essentiels, comme les antibiotiques et les anesthésiques, et a provoqué des ruptures de stock concernant certains dispositifs médicaux, comme les masques et les respirateurs. Ce rapport offre un éclairage sur les risques et les vulnérabilités des chaînes d’approvisionnement en médicaments et dispositifs médicaux. Il analyse les mesures que peuvent prendre les pouvoirs publics pour anticiper et atténuer les risques de pénuries de médicaments et de dispositifs médicaux, tant en temps ‘normal’ que dans le contexte de crises graves. Le rapport montre surtout que pour renforcer la résilience à long terme des chaînes d’approvisionnement en produits médicaux, il est indispensable d’agir dans le cadre de démarches collaboratives conciliant les mesures prises par le secteur privé avec celles relevant des gouvernements ou d’instances supranationales.

In the mining sector, government revenue depends on mineral products being priced and measured accurately. This can be especially complex for semi-processed minerals such as lithium, which is primarily used for battery production. The schedule presented in this report applies the mineral pricing framework – as documented in the joint OECD/IGF work Determining the Price of Minerals: A Transfer Pricing Framework – to identify the primary economic factors that influence the price of lithium in applying the Comparable Uncontrolled Price method and ensure that developing countries are able to tax lithium exports appropriately.

The semiconductor value chain is essential for modern economies but is prone to disruptions that pose considerable risks. Policy makers need robust data to help address a wide array of issues such as identifying bottlenecks, monitoring the balance between supply and demand of specific semiconductor types, as well as managing disruptions in the value chain. This paper establishes a common taxonomy for semiconductor types and production facilities to enable harmonised data collection and sharing. The taxonomy divides semiconductor products into four broad categories: “logic”, “memory”, “analog” and “others”, with further sub-categories based on their prevalence and specific functions. Semiconductor production facilities are classified according to the technology they use, the types of semiconductors they can produce, their production capacity, and other key characteristics. This taxonomy will be the basis for a semiconductor production database – it will be revised in the future to keep pace with technological advancements.

This report prepared jointly by the ILO and the OECD and presented at the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting under Brazil's presidency gives an overview of progress made by G20 countries towards achieving the Antalya target, and policy action taken by governments to reduce the share of at-risk youth.

Public administration reforms can lead to a more accountable and effective civil service, better organisation of the administration, and higher quality public services for citizens and businesses. This report analyses the institutional and strategic framework for public administration reform in the Palestinian Authority. It includes recommendations for improving this framework as well as the co-ordination mechanisms, systems, and processes for public administration reform.

This document is the peer review report of the National Contact Point (NCP) of Iceland. The objectives of NCP peer reviews are to assess to what extent the NCP is functioning and operating in accordance with the core effectiveness criteria set out in the implementation procedures; to identify the NCP’s strengths and possibilities for improvement; to make recommendations for improvement; and to serve as a learning tool for all NCPs involved. The peer review of the NCP of Iceland was conducted by a team of reviewers from the NCPs of Finland and Poland, along with representatives of the OECD Secretariat.

This document is the peer review report of the National Contact Point (NCP) of Romania. The objectives of NCP peer reviews are to assess to what extent the NCP is functioning and operating in accordance with the core effectiveness criteria set out in the implementation procedures; to identify the NCP’s strengths and possibilities for improvement; to make recommendations for improvement; and to serve as a learning tool for all NCPs involved. The peer review of the NCP of Romania was conducted by a team of reviewers from the NCPs of Kazakhstan, Portugal, and Spain, along with representatives of the OECD Secretariat.