Reports

Industry decarbonisation is a cornerstone to reach net-zero emissions by this mid-century. The diversity of industrial activities, processes and products, the complexity of global industrial value chains, and the international competition make industry decarbonisation a challenging objective. Annual investments in low-carbon technologies for industry decarbonisation need to increase by a factor of three to five by 2030 compared to current levels to align industrial emissions with net-zero pathways. This paper analyses available financing solutions to scale up investments at pace, especially in emerging and developing economies where industrial production is growing rapidly whilst available finance is limited. It highlights de-risking and financial instruments and models that can help accelerate investments and draws lessons from twelve financing industry decarbonisation case studies which demonstrate how private capital can be mobilised.

The FDI Qualities Review of Croatia provides policy recommendations on the design and implementation of a new strategic framework for investment promotion and facilitation in Croatia. It provides an assessment of how foreign direct investment (FDI) contributes to sustainable development, including productivity and innovation, job quality and skills development, decarbonisation and regional development. It also examines the institutional and policy framework for investment promotion and facilitation at national and subnational levels. It gives an overview of Croatia’s investment incentives regime, focusing on the effective design and implementation of tax incentives. The report indicates potential areas for institutional and policy reform to improve Croatia’s investment climate and strengthen the economic, social and environmental benefits of FDI.

Citizenship and residency by investment (CBI/RBI) programmes are government-administered programmes that grant citizenship or residency to foreign investors by expediting or bypassing normal migration processes. These programmes can help spur economic growth through foreign direct investment, but they are also attractive to criminals and corrupt officials seeking to evade justice and launder the proceeds of crime reaching into the billions of dollars. This report highlights how CBI programmes can allow criminals more global mobility and help them hide their identity and criminal activities behind shell companies in other jurisdictions. It highlights the vulnerabilities of these complex and international investment migration programmes, including the frequent use of intermediaries, involvement of multiple government agencies, abuse by professional enablers and lack of proper governance of the CBI/RBI programmes. The report proposes measures and examples of good practice, that can help policy makers and those responsible for managing the investment migration programmes address these risks. These include an in-depth analysis and understanding of how criminals can exploit CBI or RBI programmes and incorporating risk mitigation measures, such as multi-layer due diligence, in the design of the investment migration programme.

This report explores evidence-based action areas to increase and accelerate the mobilisation of private finance for climate action in developing countries, and the role of international public finance providers in doing so. It draws on best-available data to provide disaggregated analysis of the sectoral, geographic and other features of private finance mobilised by public climate finance and presents key economy-wide, sector-specific, and institutional challenges to private finance mobilisation. The analysis is anchored in the context of the USD 100 billion climate finance goal, initially set for 2020 and extended to 2025, while also providing insights related to mobilising private finance for climate action in developing countries more broadly.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a large and dynamic regional economic community (REC) with the second highest level of regional integration among all African RECs. It has also been at the forefront of regional investment policymaking in Africa, with the Finance and Investment Protocol, the Investment Policy Framework, and the SADC Model Bilateral Investment Treaty. However, like much of Africa, SADC faces difficulties in attracting foreign direct investment which can contribute to sustainable development in the region. This report introduces newly developed OECD tools and analysis to the SADC region, including both FDI Qualities and a database on investment incentives. It is designed as a baseline diagnostic to explore ways to reinvigorate the reform of the SADC investment climate in order to prepare the region for the African Continental Free Trade Area, while also focusing on how to improve sustainable outcomes from investment. The report explores the national regulatory framework encapsulated in national investment laws and how this compares with initiatives at a regional level, investment promotion and facilitation in SADC, investment incentives, investment for green growth and responsible business conduct.

Ces dernières années, l'économie mondiale a subi de profonds chocs qui ont eu un impact considérable sur les petites et moyennes entreprises (PME) et les entrepreneurs. Alors qu'un soutien gouvernemental rapide et massif a permis à ces entreprises de faire face aux conséquences économiques directes de la pandémie de COVID-19, de nouvelles menaces surgissent. La montée des tensions géopolitiques et des risques financiers mondiaux, une inflation élevée, le resserrement des politiques monétaires et fiscales, les pénuries de main-d'œuvre, les barrières commerciales et le ralentissement de l'intégration aux chaînes de valeur mondiales sont autant de facteurs qui contribuent à rendre l'environnement commercial des PME hostile. De plus, il est urgent d’accélérer leur contribution aux transitions verte et numérique, et de les aider à mieux s’orienter sur la scène internationale où les échanges et les investissements sont aujourd’hui en pleine mutation. Dans ce contexte, les Perspectives de l'OCDE sur les PME et l'entrepreneuriat 2023 abordent les tendances récentes en termes de performance des PME, l'évolution de leurs conditions d'activité ainsi que les implications pour l'action publique qui en découlent. Cette publication se penche également sur le thème général de l'intégration des PME à toute une série de réseaux, notamment les réseaux mondiaux de production et de chaînes d'approvisionnement, le rôle des entreprises dirigées par des femmes dans les échanges internationaux, les réseaux de connaissances et d'innovation, et les écosystèmes de compétences. De plus, l'accent est placé sur les politiques mises en place pour faciliter l'accès des PME à ces réseaux afin de leur permettre de tirer pleinement parti des transformations qu’elles subissent actuellement. Dans sa seconde partie, le rapport propose des profils statistiques nationaux qui comparent chacun des 38 pays de l'OCDE à travers toute une série d'indicateurs-clés.

This report explores how institutional investors can apply risk-based due diligence as recommended by the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct and help them prevent and mitigate adverse climate impacts associated with their investee companies on society and the environment. It provides practical recommendations on how to conduct due diligence as a way to connect climate commitments at portfolio level with real-economy impacts and draws on other frameworks and tools for assessing, managing or disclosing climate impacts associated with investments.

Carbon lock-in occurs when high-emission infrastructure or assets continue to be used, despite the possibility of substituting them with low-emission alternatives, thereby delaying or preventing the transition to near-zero or zero-emission alternatives. Transition finance, which focuses on the dynamic transformation and decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors, frequently faces the issue of carbon lock-in, particularly in considerations of investment feasibility and eligibility. Despite most transition finance approaches incorporating lock-in avoidance as a core principle, existing transition instruments and approaches put in place varying or limited mechanisms to prevent lock-in. Building on the OECD Guidance on Transition Finance, this report takes stock of how carbon lock-in risk is addressed in existing transition finance approaches (such as taxonomies, roadmaps, or guidance), financial instruments, and relevant public and private investment frameworks and methodologies. The report provides good practices on the integration of credible mechanisms to prevent carbon lock-in, address greenwashing risks and build confidence in the market. It can inform both public and private actors in the development of transition finance approaches, standards for green, transition and sustainability-linked debt, frameworks for corporate transition plans, or broader climate-related disclosure frameworks.

Half a century after independence, Bangladesh has achieved impressive progress. The country has transformed from one of the poorest nations into a global textile manufacturing hub capable of meeting its medical needs almost entirely through domestic pharmaceutical production. The country will graduate from the least developed country (LDC) category in 2026 and aspires to be a high-income nation through industrialisation by 2041. Meeting this challenge requires accelerating economic transformation through diversification and innovation. This Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR), implemented with the support and collaboration of the European Union (EU), and in partnership with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), identifies concrete options for supporting Bangladesh’s development. It calls for leveraging digitalisation to address persistent fragilities and it advocates for a new pact based on shared responsibilities between the national government, the private sector and international partners to shift to a new development phase and ensure sustainable, smooth and irreversible graduation.