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Tuesday, June 09, 2015

UK Prime Minister David Cameron talks openness and transparency

Does Australian Prime Minister Abbott know what he is talking about?
 I will start tomorrow at the G7 in Germany and I will put corruption at the heart of my agenda at the United Nations in September and the G20 in Turkey, culminating with a major anti-corruption Summit in London next year.
Of course there will be some who will be sceptical and say it is all too difficult. But I believe we should draw confidence from what we have already achieved. When we began the Open Government Partnership, many doubted that it would amount to much. But today 65 countries have made over 2,000 specific commitments on openness and transparency - from pioneering citizens' budgets in Liberia to letting the public audit major government projects in the Philippines.
When I put tax, trade and transparency on the G8 agenda for Lough Erne two years ago some said we would never get agreement on a global standard for the automatic exchange of information over who pays taxes where. But today over 90 countries have agreed to share their tax information automatically by the end of 2018, meaning more people will pay the tax that is due.
While there is further to go, Britain has also taken important steps in practising what we preach. Last December we published our first comprehensive national Anti-Corruption Plan, which Eric Pickles will help take forwards as my anti-corruption champion.

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