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| Meetings | Documents and links |
Bookmark this page: www.oecd.org/daf/investment/foi
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Secretary-General Gurría presents OECD guidance on recipient country policies towards SWFs, Washington, 11 October 2008
“OECD and partner countries welcome investments from SWFs as a positive force for development and global financial stability”, Mr. Gurría said in Washington on 11 October. “Taken together, the OECD guidance for recipient countries and the Santiago Principles for SWFs provide the international community with a robust framework for promoting mutual trust and confidence and reaping the full benefits of SWFs for home and host countries.”
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Keeping investment markets open and protecting national security
The OECD Investment Committee’s project on “Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic Industries’” has, since early 2006, provided a forum for intergovernmental dialogue on how governments can reconcile the need to preserve and expand an open international investment environment with their duty to safeguard the essential security interests of their people.
Dialogue has taken place in a series of discussions involving the 30 OECD members, the 10 non-member adherents to the Declaration and other major non-member countries. The “Freedom of Investment” (FOI) project carries on a tradition of OECD dialogue on investment issues that has been framed by the two OECD investment instruments: the Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements and the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises.
Reaffirming basic OECD principles: transparency, liberalisation and non discrimination
The FOI discussions have confirmed the continuing relevance of the basic principles underpinning these instruments: transparency, liberalisation and non-discrimination. They have focused on clarifying, in the current security context, the one exception to open investment policies provided for in these instruments: that governments may take measures they “consider necessary to protect essential security interests”.
The FOI discussions include peer monitoring sessions through tours d’horizon of national developments, in-depth policy discussions of selected national security topics, and identification of good investment policy practices. The Investment Committee has issued a report summarising these discussions. A key finding of these discussions is that any restrictions designed to protect national security should be transparent, subject to accountability and proportional to the objective pursued. To the extent possible, other policy remedies to the problem should be used before considering new restrictions.
Recipient government policies and SWFs
The Investment Committee is treating the issue of recipient country policies toward Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and other government-controlled investment entities as an integral part of the FOI project. A report by the Investment Committee issued in April 2008 confirms that the OECD’s established principles for investment policy apply equally well to investments by SWFs. OECD guidance on recipient country policies towards SWFs was published in October 2008 following the 8th Roundtable on Freedom of Investment. This work responds to a 2007 mandate from G7 Finance Ministers and from other OECD countries and was presented to the 2008 meeting of G7 Finance Ministers. It complements work by SWFs, assisted by the IMF, on developing guidance for their own transparency and governance practices. The two projects, taken together, will contribute to building a policy framework that will reinforce mutual confidence and trust between recipient countries and SWFs.
Meetings
- 8th Roundtable on Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic’ Industries, 8 October 2008
- OECD Forum 2008 - Session on Sovereign Wealth Funds, 3-4 June 2008
- Conference on Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Global Investment Landscape: Building Trust, London, United Kingdom, 31 March 2008
- 7th Roundtable on Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic’ Industries [ English / French ], 26 March 2008
- 6th Roundtable on Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic’ Industries, 13 December 2007
- 4th Roundtable on Freedom of Investment, National Security and "Strategic Industries", 30 March 2007
- 3rd Roundtable on Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic’ Industries, 6 December 2006
- 1st Roundtable on Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic’ Industries, 21 June 2006
Documents and links
Reports and declarations
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Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and Recipient Country Policies [ English / français ], 4 April 2008
- Progress report on the Freedom of Investment, National Security and ‘Strategic’ Industries project [ English / français ], 26 March 2008
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Speeches and news releases
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Communiqué of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, Press Release No. 08/78 [ English / français / español ], Washington, 12 April 2008
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Background documents by the OECD Secretariat
OECD investment instruments
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Interview with China investment expert, Ken Davies
More about investment policy in China
