Cayman gets place on OECD steering group

| 14/09/2009

(CNS): According to a release from the Ministry of Financial Services, the Cayman Islands was elected as a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Steering Group at the recent Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information held in Mexico. This means Cayman will have some input into the work of the forum in restructuring policy relating to international tax information exchange and transparency. Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush said the move confirmed Cayman as a leader in international tax cooperation.

Along with members from thirteen other countries, the Cayman Islands will assist in the restructuring of policy for the Global Forum, with the remit of preparing and guiding the Global Forum’s future work,” the ministry stated. The Global Forum which was formed in 2000 is the final decision making body for OECD matters relating to international exchange and transparency on tax information.

Bush said it was an honour for Cayman to have been selected as a member of Steering Group. “This provides us with the opportunity to further demonstrate Cayman’s commitment to international taxation standards and further underpins our exemplary position as a thought leader in the area of international cooperation on tax,” he added.

The Forum announced earlier this month the formation of a Peer Review Group, established to develop a detailed methodology and terms of reference for a robust, transparent and accelerated process that will evaluate the tax information exchange regimes of OECD and non-OECD countries. The work of the Peer Review Group will be fed into the Steering Group.

The Ministry press statement said that during the meeting in Mexico the Cayman Island was formally recognized for its efforts in concluding twelve bilateral agreements which allowed it to progress from the grey to the white list. This recognition assisted the Cayman Islands in being selected to chair a multilingual breakout session on the restructuring of the Global Forum with the rapporteur being the host country, Mexico, the ministry said.

The Cayman Islands also participated in the Tour de Table session in which it presented a status update on the amount of signed TIEAs (12) as well as the numbers that have been negotiated but not yet signed. These include Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Mexico. These agreements will be signed once these countries complete their respective internal approval processes.

The OECD’s next Global Forum meeting, scheduled to take place in 2010, will focus on progress in the signing and entry into force of tax information exchange agreements; preliminary outcomes from Phase One of the peer review process; multilateral initiatives to improve the exchange of information; and a report from the OECD Secretariat on how developing countries can be further integrated in and benefit from the Global Forum’s work.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    guys give the politics on this one a break..please…….would you rather us be outside the circles while things are developing or at least be part of the process with the possibility of influencing the standards. whether this is mac or kurt this is generally a decent move for cayman.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Here we go again…..they are roping us into the circle so they can blame us for our own demise. There is no one so blind as he who cannot see……God help us.

    We need sensible & intelligent leadership now !!!

    • Anonymous says:

      you are so correct….

      come in, come in , said the spider to the fly….

  3. Anonymous says:

    What is this going to add to our already overburdened Budget.

    Do this mean that we must employ some more foreign experts to fill this Post or can it be handled from staff already in place?

  4. Anon says:

    This is just FANTASTIC news and will do our finance industry and our reputation nothing but good to be a part of the process, as opposed to a victim of it.

    CREDIT to Mr. Bush for leading the country on the right path.

    • Twyla Vargas says:

      AGREED 14:04, this is fantastic news.  One thing I can say about Mr McKeva Bush, he is a MAN OF ACTION.   A real stepper.  You wont find much foot dragging with him if he can help it. 

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes and it doesn’t hurt if you can simply finish up the job that was already 90% or more completed by your predessors.

        • Anonymous says:

           Kurt should have fast-tracked this process and kept Cayman off the grey list to begin with.  He was out of touch with the political mindset out there and wasted time with his own unilateral idea on tax agreements.  Why?  The important thing was to get it done and not lose business like we have done.

          Other big difference with Kurt is he used no force to get the government books in order.  Some departments are years behind on basic accounting.  On an island with more accountants than the ESO can track.

          Civil service people should have been fired, managers especially, for allowing things to get so bad.  But Kurt did nothing and did not finance his large spending properly.  He spent without even knowing the financial situation.  He had to go.