Central Americans and other Latin Americans are feeling more concerned about what Trump can say or do, than over the only thing that can really change the fate of poverty in the region, which is education.
EDITORIAL
The recently published results of the PISA tests confirm that in the best case, these countries maintain positions midway down the table of global results, and in the worst case have fallen in the objective measurement of quality of the most important resource for economic and social development, people and their cognitive abilities.
The quality that the school system has today will determine the quality and development that the economy can achieve tomorrow.
Panama's decision to re-join the group of countries which every three years submit their education systems to the PISA test run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will determine any lags that may exist in the model of education in respect to developed countries, and lay the foundation for analyzing the changes that need to be made to increase the capacity of analysis and understanding of students today, for better socio-economic development in the future.
Legal tax engineering is a mandatory business practice for anyone who wants to be competitive in today's globalized world, and only those who are not entrepreneurs can afford to refuse to acknowledge this fact.
EDITORIAL
With the same firmness that we criticize businesspeople who evade taxes or bribe officials to get a contract, we must defend every business practice which is framed within the law to pursue the best use of available resources to generate wealth through the production of goods and services, which is what businesses do.
Gaps in GDP per capita between different countries are directly related to the productivity gaps between their respective economies, with education being the main factor in these differences.
The OECD report "Promoting inclusive growth of productivity in Latin America" says that although the region made progress in reducing poverty over the past 20 years, it still stands out at the global level, because of the unequal income its inhabitants.
The G20 finance ministers gave full support to the project that would prevent corporate profits from "disappearing" or being artificially transferred to jurisdictions with low or no taxation.
From the press release issued by the G-20:
During a meeting chaired by Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz, the G20 finance ministers expressed strong support for the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, which provides governments with solutions for closing the gaps in existing international rules that allow corporate profits to « disappear » or be artificially shifted to low/no tax environments, where little or no economic activity takes place.
As the region gets ready to start complying with the US law FATCA, OECD countries are already working on a Single Global Standard for automatic exchange of information.
FATCA could now be joined by the European OECD countries Single Global Standard for Automatic Clearing of CRS Information (Gatca), "... allowing tax information on their residents to be shared between them."
The asymmetry of investment flows makes the application of the concept of world income inevitably generates more revenue to the states of powerful economies than those of small ones.
In his opinion piece in Elfinancierocr.com, Manrique Blen points to the difficulties that countries with small economies face when they sign double taxation treaties, as, depending on the characteristics of the signed agreements, they can stop receiving tax revenues that they could have received had they not joined the treaty.
Countries such as Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama may use purchasing subsystems for projects financed by the bank.
From a press release issued by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):
Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay and Peru may use purchasing subsystems for Bank-financed projects.
The approval is part of the efforts of countries to improve their management systems for procurements, a market which represents about $800 billion in the region. Several indicators show the benefits of these efforts in recent years, for example, electronic access to the market for government procurements, which allows 70% of contracts to be accessible via the Internet.
From 10th to 13th September Panama will host the International Forum Against Corruption in Public Procurement in Latin America and the Caribbean.
From a press release issued by the Authority for Consumer Protection and Competition in Panama (Acodeco):
Panama will host an upcoming regional forum which will include discussion of techniques to tackle corruption and collusion in procurement processes and hiring in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development wants to prevent schemes that allow using different jurisdictions in order to avoid paying tax where the activity is being carried out.
An article in DF.cl reports that "The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has prepared a report, commissioned by the G20, which will be presented in early February to launch changes in international tax regulations that prevent multinationals from exploiting loopholes in order to pay very little tax by declaring profits in tax havens. "
An alliance of small territories has been proposed to encourage a discussion with the OECD over financial centers, and bring it to the attention of the United Nations.
An article in Prensa.com examines the opinions of a variety of analysts at the second Step Latam Conference held in Panama, regarding pressure from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on countries to comply with their requirements on tax information exchange.
Latin America needs to double its investment in infrastructure, setting clear and long lasting rules in order to create strong and efficient public-private partnerships.
According to recent studies, on an international grading system the average grade for infrastructure in Latin America is 3.6 points out of 10, compared to the 5.4 average of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , said the Spanish State secretary for Infrastructure, Rafael Catala.
The European Commission (EC) predicts that for the next eight years the prices of agricultural commodities will remain high.
According to a report by the EC, global food demand, the development of the biofuel sector and the a drop in crop production are contributing factors.
"The EC is basing its projections on forecasts by the European Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) made last June," taking into account the latest global economic survey. "
In the isthmus the country with the most financial secrecy is Panama (14 in the list of "opaque jurisdictions"), followed by Costa Rica (41) and Guatemala (42).
Globally Switzerland is top of the list followed by the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Hong Kong, all ahead of the U.S. which is in 5th place.
Every year governments around the world lose around 250 billion dollars in taxes, as a consequence of the rich keeping their assets in tax havens.
Increased demand, especially in emerging countries, has determined growth in the sector since 2008.
Studies by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), predict for the period 2008 to 2018, an increase in consumption of 33% in butter, 32% in whole powdered milk, 22% in cheese and 19% in the skimmed powdered milk.