LINKS

Below are links to key organisations and events concerned with global tax and investment matters. Descriptions in quotation marks are from their own websites.

ITIO observers

Commonwealth Secretariat

The Commonwealth is "a unique family of 54 developed and developing nations around the world. It is a voluntary association of independent sovereign states spread over every continent and ocean. Its 1.7 billion people account for 30 per cent of the world's population. They are found in every continent and ocean and are of many religions, races, languages and cultures." The Commonwealth Secretariat was mandated by Commonwealth Finance Ministers to assist multilateral and regional dialogue between the OECD and affected Commonwealth jurisdictions over the OECD's Harmful Tax Competition Initiative.

CARICOM Secretariat

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) groups some 27 Caribbean countries and territories: 15 members, nine observers and three associate members. Its objectives are "economic cooperation through the Caribbean Single Market and Economy; coordination of foreign policy among the independent Member States; and common services and co-operation in functional matters such as health, education and culture, communications and industrial relations."

The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat

The Pacific Islands Forum groups the 16 "independent and self-governing Pacific Island countries, Australia and New Zealand. Since 1971, it has provided member nations with the opportunity to express their joint political views and to cooperate in areas of political and economic concern."

Caribbean Development Bank

CDB is a regional financial institution established on 26 January 1970. Its Charter provides that CDB shall "assist regional members in the co-ordination of their development programmes with a view to achieving better utilization of their resources, making their economies more complementary and promoting the orderly expansion of their international trade, in particular intra-regional trade. CDB shall also "provide appropriate technical assistance, particularly by undertaking or commissioning pre-investment surveys, and by assisting in the identification and preparation of project proposals". The 20 Regional Members are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands and Venezuela. The five non-Regional Members are Canada, Italy, Germany, the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom. Only Regional Members can borrow from CDB; they also hold at least 60% of CDB shares.

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank was established in October 1983. It is the Monetary Authority for a group of eight small island economies, namely Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and The Grenadines. These use a single common currency, the Eastern Caribbean dollar (ECD). The bank's mission statement is "to maintain the stability of the ECD and the integrity of the banking system in order to facilitate the balanced growth and development of member states". Its purposes are: to regulate the availability of money and credit; to promote and maintain monetary stability; to promote credit and exchange conditions and a sound financial structure conducive to the balanced growth and development of the economies of the territories of the participating governments; and to actively promote through means consistent with its other objectives the economic development of the territories of the participating governments.

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Other international organisations

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development calls itself “an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy”. Under its founding Convention, the OECD “shall promote policies designed:

The OECD’s 30 members are Austria, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission takes part in the OECD’s work.