Registration and welcome coffee

Announcements

A conversation with Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General (Read the speech)

With remarks by Liliane Maury Pasquier, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 

Inclusive Growth and sustainable development: Making progress towards achieving the SDGs

Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20

Discussant: Ria Oomen-Ruijten, Member of Parliament, Netherlands, and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)

The SDGs are the most ambitious, challenging and complex policy agenda that the global community has ever undertaken. Despite some progress, delivering on the central promise of the 2030 Agenda “to leave no one behind” means that at least 730 million people, or 10% of the global population, still need to be lifted out of extreme poverty by 2030. Globally, we are not on track. The OECD’s SDG Action Plan supports Members, partners, and the international community on making progress on the 2030 Agenda, both by measuring the distance to the SDGs and by bringing the policy tools to catch up. This presentation will include examples of how the OECD can support countries – and legislators in particular – to deliver on the SDGs and on the inclusive growth agenda.

• Inclusive Growth

Coffee break

Update on International Migration

Jean-Christophe Dumont, Head of the International Migration Division, OECD

Discussant: Stephanie Cox, Member of Parliament, Austria

In 2018, migration flows – notably labour and family – to OECD countries rose slightly, while humanitarian migration fell. Asylum applications decreased to 1.09 million, 35% fewer than the record high of 1.65 million requests registered in both 2015 and 2016. Because of this drop in applications, the number of registered refugees also declined. This presentation provided an update on recent developments in migration movements and policies, and expanded on three migration dilemmas: attracting talents, responding to labour shortages and involving local actors to support integration.

• See the speaker's presentation (PDF)
• Humanitarian migration falls while labour and family migration rises
• OECD work on migration

Group photo

Buffet Lunch

Update on addressing the tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy

Pascal Saint-Amans, Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

The OECD Secretariat recently released its proposal to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. This proposal brings together common elements of three competing proposals from member countries of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (134 countries and jurisdictions).
The OECD Secretariat’s proposal, which is now open to a public consultation process, would re-allocate some profits and corresponding taxing rights to countries and jurisdictions where multinational enterprises (MNEs) have their markets. It would ensure that MNEs conducting significant business in places where they do not have a physical presence be taxed in such jurisdictions. More specifically it would create new rules stating (1) where tax should be paid (“nexus” rules) and (2) on what portion of profits they should be taxed (“profit allocation” rules).
What does the release of this proposal mean for international tax moving forward? What are some of the details that still need to be agreed? When might a political agreement emerge? Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD’s CTPA, addressed all of these questions and more.

• OECD leading multilateral efforts to address tax challenges from digitalisation of the economy

Taxing energy use 

Pascal Saint-Amans, Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD 
Kurt Van Dender, Head, Tax and the Environment Unit, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD

Taxes should feature prominently in the policy packages to address the major environment and climate policy challenges that our societies currently face. They can make sure that households and businesses take the cost of pollution into account when deciding how much, where and how to produce or consume. Making pollution more costly is a very effective way of reducing it. How far along are countries with using taxes for environment goals? What are the reasons that keep them from raising ambition, and how can they overcome? In this session, we presented OECD’s work on these questions, focussing on energy taxation and climate change.

• See the speaker's presentation (PDF)
• OECD work on Tax and the Environment
  
• Taxing Energy Use 2019

Coffee break

The role of parliaments to advance the fight against corruption
Case study on the implementation and enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention  

Drago Kos, Chair, OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions
Discussant: Pablo Lorenzini, Member of Parliament, Chile

The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention entered into force exactly 20 years ago, with the aim to level the playing field for all companies of the world. Since then, 44 countries have bound themselves to respect its standards and the OECD Working Group on Bribery is strictly monitoring its enforcement. Despite these countries' achievements, some significant areas for possible improvement remain, and parliaments are critical in this regard. This presentation shared general trends in the world of international bribery as well as an analysis of “anti-globalism” as the biggest threat to the global response to corruption.

• See the speakers' presentation (PDF)
• OECD work on Bribery and Corruption
• OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions

First day closing and preview of Special Session on AI

Reception

Special session on Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

Registration and welcome coffee

OECD AI principles - the role of MPs in leveraging the benefits of AI 

Dirk Pilat, Deputy Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD

In May 2019, OECD member countries and a range of partner economies adopted the first intergovernmental standard on AI – the OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence (OECD AI Principles). This provided the basis for the G20 AI Principles endorsed by Leaders in June 2019. Building on OECD work and collaboration with a multi-stakeholder group of experts, the OECD AI Principles promote AI that is innovative and trustworthy and that respects human rights and democratic values. In addition to sharing background on the development of the Principles and examples of current work on country implementation, this presentation also dedicated time to exploring the potential role of MPs in promoting the AI Principles. 

• See the speaker's presentation (PDF)
• OECD Principles on AI

How are countries approaching their AI strategies and policies?

Dirk Pilat, Deputy Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD
Karine Perset, Policy Analyst, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD

Discussant: Deborah Bergamini, Member of Parliament, Italy; and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)

Many countries are developing and implementing AI strategies and policies that intersect with a range of issues - growth and well-being, trust, education. The OECD AI Policy Observatory – OECD.AI – launching in late 2019, aims to help countries encourage, nurture and monitor the responsible development of trustworthy AI systems for the benefit of society. The Observatory provided a space for countries and stakeholders to compare policy responses, learn from each other’s experiences, monitor collective progress and develop good practices. What are the main features of AI strategies around the world? How might different countries leverage these in their own national strategies?

• See the speakers' presentation (PDF)

Coffee break

The Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence and labour markets

Stijn Broecke, Senior Economist (Future of Work), Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
Stephan Vincent-Lancrin, Senior Analyst - Deputy Head of Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD

Discussants:
Lord Clement-Jones, Member of the House of Lords, UK
Alessandro Fusacchia, Member of Parliament, Italy

Will the robots take our jobs and when? Concerns about the risk of automation are prevalent – what are its determinants and what factors might mitigate such risk? This session explored the impact of AI on the labour market as well as policy responses to help manage the transitions as jobs change, outlining key questions that urgently need answering. It then looked at the skills implications for workers and the labour market, how some new skill sets will become more important and how education and training systems could respond.

• See the speakers' presentation (PDF)
• OECD Employment Outlook 2019 : The Future of Work
• OECD Skills Outlook 2019: Thriving in a Digital World
• Computers and the Future of Skill Demand
• Fostering Students' Creativity and Critical Thinking: What it Means in School

Short thematic session

• AI in Science – Alistair Nolan, Senior Policy Analyst - Innovation and policy evaluation, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD
  Discussant: Eva Kaili, Member of the European Parliament, Greece

AI holds the promise of improving research productivity at a time when discoveries are becoming harder to achieve, pressure on public research budgets is increasing, and global challenges – from climate change to disease threats – require scientific breakthroughs. Using AI in science may also become indispensable when the vast and growing volume of scientific papers surpasses scientists’ ability to read them all. Concerns about a possible decline in research productivity raise the question: Could deliberate efforts to expand AI’s use in science possibly raise research productivity in multiple scientific domains?

See the speaker's presentation (PDF)

Observations and next steps

Anthony Gooch, Director, Public Affairs and Communications Directorate, OECD
Dirk Pilat, Deputy Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD

Closing remarks

Anthony Gooch, Director, Public Affairs and Communications Directorate, OECD