The meeting of OECD Investment Committee took place online
08.07.2020
On July 8, 2020, a regular meeting of the Investment Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (hereinafter – the OECD) was held under the chairmanship of Mike Tracton, Deputy Chairman of the OECD Investment Committee. The meeting was attended by representatives of a number of OECD member countries, in particular: France, Chile, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, Lithuania, the European Union, etc. About 80 participants joined the meeting of the OECD Investment Committee: high-ranking representatives of state bodies, variou.organizations of the following countries: Uruguay, Kazakhstan; international experts from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Peru, Portugal, Romania, USA, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Chile, France and Japan; representatives of the European Union, OECD and other internationa.organizations. On behalf of Kazakhstan, representatives of the Ministries of National Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in France and Institute for Economic Research JSC took part in the videoconference. The meeting was held in a videoconference format and consisted of two sessions: 1. Report of Uruguay on the investment climate created in the country; 2. Report of Kazakhstan on the activities of the National Contact Center The webinar was moderated by Michael Tracton, Director of the Office of Investment at the US State Department and Deputy Chairman of the OECD Investment Committee. He noted the success of the development of the Investment Policy of Uruguay and said that the agenda of the meeting was to discuss the issue of the country's joining the Committee. In his speech, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance of Uruguay Alejandro Irastorza thanked the OECD for its cooperation and active participation in improving the Investment Policy of Uruguay, and expressed hope for a positive assessment of the investment measures taken by the country. Santiago Gatica, associate member of Freshfields Brookhouse Deringer (New York), Deputy Chairman of the Cross-Border Investment Committee of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), made the following remarks in his country report: - In accordance with the terms of the process of accession of the country of Uruguay to the membership of the OECD Investment Committee, which was launched in March 2018, a review of the country's investment policy was carried out by representatives of the OECD with co-financing from the European Union Transitional Development Fund and Uruguay; - In Uruguay, there is a freedom of capital that allows foreign investors to freely withdraw their profits abroad, and the Government of the country does not restrict the rights of foreigners in their share ownership of issued shares, and does not impose any obligations to achieve specific performance results. At the same time, there are no discriminatory visa frameworks for residence or work permits in the country; - The Government has taken measures to simplify the procedure for attracting foreign direct investment, and in this regard, Uruguay does not currently require any prior approval from the local authorities of Uruguay and obtaining various permits, except for a few sectors of the economy where there are still restrictions for foreigners that affect national security and belong to the state monopoly of management (telephone and internet, electricity, water treatment, oil imports and processing, as well as insurance and financial activities). In addition, investors who comply with the rules and regulations established by the Law on Investments receive access to tax benefits from the Government of Uruguay. The country has created free economic and industrial zones, which are the basis for the implementation of structured investment projects; - Currently, work is underway to create a National Contact Point in accordance with the requirements of the OECD guidelines. The planned launch date is the last quarter of 2020. Following the speech, there was a discussion on investment measures, protection of the rights of foreign investors, the fight against corruption, and the National Contact Point. At the end of the 1st part of the session, concerning Uruguay, Michael Tracton noted the high desire of Uruguay to join the membership of the OECD Investment Committee, implemented as part of a gradual strategy of convergence with the OECD in order to study and share best practices in the field of politics, economics and development. On behalf of the Committee, a positive recommendation was made to the OECD General Council to include the country as a full member of the Committee. Opening the second session, Mike Tracton noted that Kazakhstan has been an associate member of the OECD Investment Committee since 2017 and today should demonstrate the progress made since the last meeting of the Committee, held in October 2019, on the establishment of a National Contact Center (hereinafter – NCC). Vice-Minister of National Economy Zhaslan Madiyev presented the measures taken in Kazakhstan to establish and operate the NCC, including: 1. Legal regulation of the functioning of the NCC in Kazakhstan; 2. Organization and procedure of NCC activities; 3. Information work to promote and explain the OECD guidelines for multinational companies; 4. Procedure for handling complaints of violations of the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises; 5. Information resource of NCC Thus, the National Contact Center of Kazakhstan is a collegial advisory body that makes decisions on complaints under consideration about violations of the OECD principles on responsible business conduct by multinational enterprises. The activities of the NCC are regulated by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 667 dated September 9, 2019 and the Order of the Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 124 dated June 18, 2020. The delegates of the meeting from Switzerland, the European Union, France and Lithuania showed particular interest in the role of the NCC Secretariat represented by the Institute for Economic Research JSC, the availability of the developed regulatory legal acts for all interested parties, as well as the measures taken to prevent conflicts of interest between the NCC members. Official results of the meeting and recommendations of the OECD Investment Committee will be presented within 10 days. At the same time, the participants of the meeting, and in particular, the OECD Secretariat, positively assessed the report of Kazakhstan. In turn, Nadia Meyer, a delegate from Switzerland, sincerely congratulated Kazakhstan on the progress made and the start of the National Contact Center.
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