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 study explores what governments, business associations, NGOs, and companies do in order to strengthen business integrity with a particular focus on anti-corruption measures in and for the private sector in countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as in selected other countries.

Countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have introduced important anti-corruption reforms in recent years. However, corruption in the region remains high. This report identifies progress achieved as well as challenges which require further action by countries.

17 September 2016, Washington DC - This event brought together legal practitioners and experts to focus on how international standards on responsible business conduct are impacting legal practice as well as how legal tools can be used to strengthen ethical business practices throughout global supply chains.

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.

Georgia has achieved remarkable progress in eliminating petty corruption in the public administration and should now focus on combating high-level and complex corruption, according to 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.

17 October 2016, Paris: The G20 Chinese Presidency, the UK and the OECD jointly organised a Seminar on “Corruption and Economic Growth”. Expert panellists recognised the negative impact of corruption on economic growth and society at both the macro and micro level, and stressed the importance of strong political leadership in fighting corruption.

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.

Mongolia has made significant progress in developing its anti-corruption policy, legislation and institutions over the past few years. However, progress has recently slowed and there are increasing concerns about the future direction and pace of reforms, according to a new OECD report.

Abidjan, 27-28 October 2016 - This event focused on transparency and accountability, in particular tackling illicit financial flows and combating corruption. The event provided an occasion to launch the OECD-AfDB Anti-Bribery Policy and Compliance Guidance for African Companies.

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.

New guidance from the AfDB and the OECD will help African companies of all sizes set up measures to prevent bribery and improve the quality of corporate compliance and anti-bribery policies.

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.

Funded Pension arrangements, in particular defined contribution ones, are playing a growing role in complementing retirement income from public sources in OECD countries and worldwide. However, their design needs to be improved, according to a new OECD report.

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.

New international guidance on fighting corruption in the development sector goes into effect today, backed by more than 40 countries, with progress on agreed recommendations to be monitored by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

This stocktaking report first presents a chronology of how systems for the liability of legal persons have evolved among the 41 Parties to the Anti-Bribery Convention. It then presents a “mapping” of the features of these systems for the 41 Parties.

9 December 2016, Paris: Held on International Anti-Corruption Day, this roundtable provided an opportunity for governments, the private sector, civil society, and the media, to reflect on the liability of legal persons following more than 15 years of work by the OECD Working Group on Bribery to promote its application for foreign bribery.

Following on from the London Anti-Corruption Summit which took place in May 2016, the OECD and the International Bar Association (IBA) have agreed to form a task force to develop professional conduct standards and practice guidance for lawyers involved in establishing and advising on international commercial structures and recommended actions for governments.

19 December 2016, Paris: On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, this roundtable convened a wide range of stakeholders from international organisations, governments, business, civil society, and academia involved in working with the Guidelines.

The paper summarises views expressed by practitioners at a workshop in Beijing on 13-14 April 2016 with respect to contemporary challenges in international co-operation in corruption cases and possible solutions to mitigate these challenges. It has a practical orientation and is intended to contribute to ongoing dialogue at national and multilateral levels on enhancing international co-operation.

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.

Mutual legal assistance, and international co-operation more broadly, are important issues in the investigation and prosecution of corruption crimes. This report outlines common barriers to MLA among the 31 member jurisdictions of the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific, and describes best practices used to overcome these barriers.

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.

Paris, 8 March 2017: Taking place on International Women's Day, this OECD-hosted conference considered questions such as gender differences in financial literacy and inclusion; women working in the informal economy and the role of business: gender differences in the changing pensions landscape; empowering women to fight back against corruption and engaging men to support gender equality in the workplace.

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.

Foreign bribery enforcement in the UK has increased significantly since 2012 notably thanks to the pragmatic and effective approach taken by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate and resolve foreign bribery cases.

Finland has proactively investigated seven allegations of Finnish individuals or companies paying bribes to foreign public officials since 1999 but needs to address its discouragingly high acquittal rate.

Some 16 years after joining the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, Argentina remains in serious non-compliance.

The FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index (FDI Index) measures statutory restrictions on foreign direct investment in 58 countries, including all OECD and G20 countries, and covers 22 sectors.

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.

Promoting responsible business conduct in the financial sector is vital to building a sustainable global economy. Although the Guidelines’ due diligence recommendations can help financial institutions, the inherent complexities in the sector create challenges. This paper highlights key considerations for institutional investors in carrying out due diligence that will help to identify and respond to environmental and social risks.

Promoting responsible business conduct in the financial sector is vital to building a sustainable global economy. This paper will help institutional investors implement the due diligence recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in order to prevent or address adverse impacts related to human and labour rights, the environment, and corruption in their investment portfolios.

The 2017 OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum will tackle issues related to fair competition and economic growth, the inequality gap, a level playing field for business, the public interest in policy making and trust in government and politics

“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.

Global FDI flows decreased by 7% in 2016, despite recovering well in the second half of the year following a weak second quarter, according to the latest issue of FDI in Figures. Flows remained below their pre-crisis peak, representing 2.2% of global GDP compared to 3.6% in 2007.

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.

Practical actions for companies to identify and address the worst forms of child labour in mineral supply chains is for use by companies to help them identify, mitigate and account for the risks of child labour in their mineral supply chains. It builds on the due diligence framework of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.

The slowdown in productivity growth - already underway before the crisis – combined with sluggish investment, continued to undermine rises in economic output and material living standards in recent years in many of the world’s economies, according to a new report released today by the OECD.

Lithuania has taken an important step on the road to OECD membership by completing the process to become a member of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Lithuania will become the 42nd Party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention on 15 July 2017, 60 days after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

Integrating measures to tackle climate change into regular economic policy will have a positive impact on economic growth over the medium and long term, according to a new OECD report prepared in the context of the German Presidency of the G20.