2019 G20 Leaders’ Summit - Digital (AI, data governance, digital trade, taxation)
Remarks by Angel Gurría
OECD Secretary-General
Osaka, Japan - Friday 28 June, 2019
(As prepared for delivery)
Leaders,
The profound and transformative impact of the digital revolution on our economies and societies, requires common policy approaches, based on a full and common understanding of its implications.
And this is what the G20 is delivering through the G20 Artificial Intelligence Principles that you are endorsing today. You are affirming that the AI we want is centered on people, respects ethical and democratic values, is transparent, safe and accountable.
At the OECD, we are proud that our own AI principles, endorsed just a month ago following a multi-stakeholder consultation, served as a foundation for this G20 consensus. They complement the “Digital Roadmap”, which was launched under the G20 Chinese and German Presidencies, and to which the OECD also made an important contribution.
The stakes are high. If Artificial intelligence is improving our everyday life, such as detecting rare illnesses by screening X-rays with 100% accuracy, it is also raising questions around safety, accountability, inclusiveness and around TRUST more broadly.
And because it is running on data-intensive technologies, AI is also part and parcel of Prime Minister Abe’s ambitious and timely initiative on Data Free Flow with Trust.
Part of the challenge is addressing the tax issues arising from digitalisation. Working around the clock with your teams, and those of other Inclusive Framework Members, we delivered a workplan that was endorsed by your Finance Ministers earlier this month in Fukuoka. This will enable us to finalize, by 2020, a solution that will allow countries to tax the profits of multinationals where users and consumers are located and to ensure that companies’ profits are taxed at some minimum levels.
These issues are the “new frontier” of a policy agenda that has become one of the most visible and tangible successes of the G20 process: the reform of the international tax architecture, which the OECD is proud to have supported since 2009.
This common effort is delivering as we speak: In 2018, information on 47 million offshore accounts – with a total value of almost 5 trillion Euros – has been exchanged for the first time; over EUR 95 billion have already been identified from voluntary disclosures and offshore investigations so far; and there has been a 25% reduction in the bank deposits in international financial centres as a result of automatic exchange. In other words, we are winning the battle against bank secrecy as a tool for tax evasion.
Further, 21,000 tax rulings have been exchanged – the era of sweetheart deals is over – and over 250 preferential regimes have been reviewed, with the ones found to be harmful to third countries having been cancelled or modified.
These are your achievements. You should be proud. We certainly are. To maintain the momentum, we need your personal political leadership.
See also:
OECD work on Going Digital
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