Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you all for joining this UN Workshop on one of the most important issues in international taxation, which addresses the following question: how can we appropriately tax new business models and the profits they make, in an increasingly digitalized economy?
I thank the Financing for Sustainable Development Office in UN DESA for organizing the workshop. And I express my great appreciation to the presenters for giving freely of their time, and from many different time zones.
The United Nations Secretary-General has urged all of us to recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is not simply a health crisis, but indeed a broader human crisis. It is a humanitarian crisis; a job crisis; and a development crisis. It is of unprecedented scale and dimension.
To respond effectively, we need fiscal and monetary measures that provide resources directly to workers and households, targeting both formal and informal sectors. We need to scale up social protection and access to health care. We need to help businesses prevent bankruptcies and massive job losses.
Many of you have been involved in developing and carrying out emergency tax measures in your own countries, as part of the COVID-19 response. Tax officials rarely receive the praise they are due for such important work. Therefore, allow me to express the deep admiration of UN DESA for those efforts to support sustainable development at country level.
But recovery and response to COVID-19, as well as the broader quest for sustainable development, also demand a more systemic evaluation. Such as, whether our international tax rules are fit for purpose with changing business models and consumer expectations. And, if not, how do we best and most quickly make the necessary changes.
This workshop is designed to ensure that developing country advisers and policy makers are well equipped to advise ministers on options for taxation of the digitalized economy, and their pros and cons.
The Workshop will, more broadly, assist those involved in multilateral regional, bilateral and domestic discussions and negotiations. This includes the ability to better evaluate implications for developing countries of different positions, including the impact on their tax bases and investment climates going forward.
At this workshop, we have assembled some of the best global expertise to help you in advising and negotiating these issues – in the interests of your countries, your regions and the globe. You will be given many opportunities to engage interactively with the presenters and other participants, and I urge you to do so.
From the UN DESA perspective, our tax capacity development work and our more traditional tax policy and administration guidance, each informs and improves the other.
Distinguished Participants,
While there have been many challenges this year for our tax capacity, we have also seen new opportunities arise. For example, moving such a large workshop to a virtual format has allowed multiple participations from developing countries, in a way that would not be possible in a physical meeting. And when the situation normalizes in the future, we can have “blended” physical and virtual events. This will maximize the benefits of both formats, and thus deliver better for our stakeholders.
In closing, I would especially like to thank the Norwegian Government for its far-sighted support of this and other capacity building efforts. I also call for others to similarly support this critical work.
And finally, I warmly welcome the many representatives from developing countries, who are our most immediate stakeholders for these six days. I look forward to your active participation, and hope you find the workshop relevant and rewarding.
I thank you.