Meeting at OECD’s first Global Forum on Transfer Pricing, tax officials from 90 countries agreed on the need to simplify transfer pricing rules, strengthen the guidelines on intangible issues and improve the efficiency of dispute resolution.

Poland has been a strong performer across the OECD through the global economic crisis, growing much faster than most other countries and making impressive steps toward reducing the income gap with its European Union partners, according to the OECD’s latest economic survey.

Finland gives its young children a better start in education than most OECD countries.

Hungary’s law banning bribery of foreign public officials is relatively good on paper but lacks effective application, according to a new OECD report. Hungary must strengthen detection and prosecution of individuals and companies involved in foreign bribery.

The United Kingdom has significantly boosted its foreign bribery enforcement efforts but needs to be more transparent when resolving cases.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has just completed peer reviews of 11 jurisdictions. This brings to 70 the number of peer review reports completed since March 2010.

Middle Eastern and North African countries should reform the governance of their state-owned enterprises to bring about greater public accountability and improve their efficiency, according to a new OECD report.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) requesting loans between 2007 and 2010 faced higher interest rates than for large companies. Loan conditions for SMEs included shortened maturities and increased demands for collateral, suggesting that banks considered smaller firms to be a higher risk.

The European Union is a major player in global development, co-ordinating coherent actions amongst its 27 member states and providing direct support to developing countries.

Across OECD countries some 83 million people suffer from diabetes. On current trends, that will rise to almost 100 million by 2030.