OECD Secretary-General Ángel Gurría visited our Confederation
OECD appreciates Czech low unemployment rate, export performance, and economic growth.
Source: OECD (2014) www.oecd.org/dataoecd/44/19/33818656.pdf
We found common ground with the OECD representatives also in some fundamental views on energy, especially on the fact that energy savings and the energy mixture setting must be decided according to individual conditions of the respective country. Non-flexible “one-size-fits-all” solutions are not effective.
The OECD Secretary-General Gurría informed the Confederation about a new OECD initiative, the Inclusive Growth, which will be officially launched at the OECD World Forum on Well-Being taking place on 27-29 November 2018 in South Korea. The discussion at the Forum should mainly deal with how data can be best transformed into policies and how business can be best included within this process.
This high-level OECD mission to the Czech Republic is taking place on the occasion of launching the OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic and is being accompanied by the Czech ambassador and permanent representative of the Czech Republic to the OECD, Mr Petr Gandalovič. During his visit, the OECD Secretary-General Mr Gurría will also meet with the Czech prime minister, several government ministers, governor of the Czech National Bank and other relevant partners.
On Monday, OECD Secretary-General Ángel Gurría met with the top management of our Confederation and with a number of our experts. He has arrived in the Czech Republic to launch the OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review. Mr Gurría informed us about the OECD assessment of the Czech Republic in several areas. Confederation representatives presented to Mr Gurría priorities of the Czech business, which are in many ways in line with the OECD recommendations.
„The Czech Republic has redefined the term full employment“, Mr Gurría stated pointing at the current unprecedented low unemployment rate in the Czech Republic. Representatives of the Confederation and the OECD agreed that the lack of jobs pulls back economic growth and that managed migration is an essential component of adequate policy measures aimed to improve the situation: „Preventing controlled migration could lead to stopping growth in the Czech Republic,“ Mr Gurría stated. Another fundamental pre-condition of sustaining economic growth and competitiveness (besides higher job flexibility and more accessible childcare) is the up-skilling and re-skilling of labour force, especially of older workers. Given the on-going digitalization and automatization process, a lot of jobs will very likely disappear or modify radically. As the OECD Secretary-General Gurría put it: „In the Czech Republic, more than 15% of jobs are at risk of disappearing due to automatization and further 31% of jobs will very likely undergo a highly significant modification “.
Furthermore, the OECD highest representative underlined the importance of meticulous approach towards setting clear criteria for “digital taxation”. The Confederation rejects the inappropriately prepared EU proposal. Instead we support finding an expert-based solution of this issue on the OECD level. In this context, Mr Gurría expressed his regret at the existing effort of some countries to look for solutions of digital taxation in a rush: „Digital taxation challenges are too important to be urgent,“ Mr Gurría stated.
We were in agreement with the OECD representatives also as regards the need to provide stability and to minimize uncertainty for business. Our Confederation does not oppose several measures against tax evasion, however, on the other hand we would finally like to see some positive measures and some simplifications as well. In the last number of years, we noticed mainly further increase in administrative burden. Some companies are facing difficulties also in tax deductions for R&D, where current practice goes actually against the original purpose of the deductions and where numerous innovative firms are currently in fact afraid to use this instrument. These problems regard also the overall approach of Czech tax authorities. In this respect, the Czech tax administration could probably take inspiration from the OECD model – the pyramid of pro-client tax administration approaches towards those fulfilling or striving to fulfil their tax obligations:
Tax administration approach versus taxpayers’ behaviour:
„The Czech Republic has redefined the term full employment“, Mr Gurría stated pointing at the current unprecedented low unemployment rate in the Czech Republic. Representatives of the Confederation and the OECD agreed that the lack of jobs pulls back economic growth and that managed migration is an essential component of adequate policy measures aimed to improve the situation: „Preventing controlled migration could lead to stopping growth in the Czech Republic,“ Mr Gurría stated. Another fundamental pre-condition of sustaining economic growth and competitiveness (besides higher job flexibility and more accessible childcare) is the up-skilling and re-skilling of labour force, especially of older workers. Given the on-going digitalization and automatization process, a lot of jobs will very likely disappear or modify radically. As the OECD Secretary-General Gurría put it: „In the Czech Republic, more than 15% of jobs are at risk of disappearing due to automatization and further 31% of jobs will very likely undergo a highly significant modification “.
Furthermore, the OECD highest representative underlined the importance of meticulous approach towards setting clear criteria for “digital taxation”. The Confederation rejects the inappropriately prepared EU proposal. Instead we support finding an expert-based solution of this issue on the OECD level. In this context, Mr Gurría expressed his regret at the existing effort of some countries to look for solutions of digital taxation in a rush: „Digital taxation challenges are too important to be urgent,“ Mr Gurría stated.
We were in agreement with the OECD representatives also as regards the need to provide stability and to minimize uncertainty for business. Our Confederation does not oppose several measures against tax evasion, however, on the other hand we would finally like to see some positive measures and some simplifications as well. In the last number of years, we noticed mainly further increase in administrative burden. Some companies are facing difficulties also in tax deductions for R&D, where current practice goes actually against the original purpose of the deductions and where numerous innovative firms are currently in fact afraid to use this instrument. These problems regard also the overall approach of Czech tax authorities. In this respect, the Czech tax administration could probably take inspiration from the OECD model – the pyramid of pro-client tax administration approaches towards those fulfilling or striving to fulfil their tax obligations:
Tax administration approach versus taxpayers’ behaviour:
Source: OECD (2014) www.oecd.org/dataoecd/44/19/33818656.pdf
We found common ground with the OECD representatives also in some fundamental views on energy, especially on the fact that energy savings and the energy mixture setting must be decided according to individual conditions of the respective country. Non-flexible “one-size-fits-all” solutions are not effective.
The OECD Secretary-General Gurría informed the Confederation about a new OECD initiative, the Inclusive Growth, which will be officially launched at the OECD World Forum on Well-Being taking place on 27-29 November 2018 in South Korea. The discussion at the Forum should mainly deal with how data can be best transformed into policies and how business can be best included within this process.
This high-level OECD mission to the Czech Republic is taking place on the occasion of launching the OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic and is being accompanied by the Czech ambassador and permanent representative of the Czech Republic to the OECD, Mr Petr Gandalovič. During his visit, the OECD Secretary-General Mr Gurría will also meet with the Czech prime minister, several government ministers, governor of the Czech National Bank and other relevant partners.
- Olga Rozsívalová
- /
-
section Aktuálně