Ladies and Gentlemen!

First of all, may I express the appreciation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Norwegian School of Business Administration for their excellent co-operation in convening this conference. I think I can say on behalf of all the participants that we do look forward to hear the views and insights of so many prominent speakers, both from research organisationsas well as other institutions dealing with the important and topical aspects of globalisation that we are addressing today.

Less than two months ago, on September 11 ^th>, a whole world witnessed the awful terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. They showed us how vulnerable we all are in an integrated and open world. In a tragic way, the terrorist attacks have dramatically influenced and increased the challenges of globalisation, both related to security, equal opportunities to participate in the global economy, transparency of financial and other transactions right down to the implications for our daily life. It is important that we meet these challenges with courage and determination, and agree on proper initiatives.

On this note, we have also seen another aspect of globalisation. The tragic events mobilised global support and grief for the victims. And this have led to renewed efforts in international co-operation. Withdrawal and isolation is not seen as an answer to the challenges of globalisation. The answer lies in improved global governance and strengthened international co-operation.

We have important international milestones in the near future that give us opportunities to strengthen our co-operation efforts.

The Ministerial meeting of World Trade Organisation takes place in Qatar next week. My Government believes that a clear signal of commitment to an open and rules-based international trade regime should emanate from that meeting. A positive decision to start a new round of negotiations on world trade would be an appropriate answer to the challenge of economic uncertainty that we now face and be an incentive for growth in the world economy. A new trade round should furthermore pay particular attention to the concerns of the developing countries and their need to obtain increased benefits from world trade. The possible implications for the poorest countries of a global economic cool-down are considered to be critical by the countries themselves. We should work together to reach an agreement in Qatar to help overcome these fears, and create hopes for the future.

In February next year, an important UN High Level Conference on Financing Development in Mexico gives us an opportunity to address both the situation for the poorest countries and to discuss how global common goods can and should be financed.

Finally, in September next year, the World Summit on Sustainable Development will take place in Johannesburg. The World Summit will review what has happened since the first Summit took place in Rio ten years ago.

The Government is determined to use these opportunities to pursue measures that will contribute to fulfilling the goals of the UN Millennium Report on fighting poverty, and improving the global situation for health, environment and security.

Norway’s role

Norway belongs to a group of small countries that are among the most globalised countries in the world. Through an open economy we have access to goods, services and capital we do not produce ourselves. Norway’s participation in the global market and our use of new technology has given us an unprecedented economic growth, welfare, opportunities and choices.

At the same time we see that while the economic and technological development take place in a global market beyond or above national borders, politics is still mainly determined at the national level. The global market alone can not deal with issues such as social equity and marginalisation, economic stability and predictability or global commons such as climate change, clean water supply and global infectious diseases.

These challenges must be met through strengthened international co-operation.

As a small and globalised country, it is important for Norway to strengthen the positive and reduce the negative impacts of globalisation. We need to build an international society founded on the rule of law with a rulebased system of trade and international economic co-operation. We need to open up our economies and give the developing countries better opportunities to participate in the global economy on an equal basis and we need to find ways to reduce the digital divide we see emerging today.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with a number of other Ministries, is co-operating with national and international research institutions, and with international organisations and other countries to establish a strong knowledge base for our policy formation on some of the most crucial global issues. Our ambition is also to share this knowledge with the public at large in Norway, and thus contribute to an informed debate on globalisation.

Norway wants to take active part in the all the different international fora where the content and direction of globalisation is decided. Global governance is about strengthened international organisations, but it is also about a whole and complex web of intergovernmental and private international agreements, treaties, standards and codes.

We will focus on a number of related aspects of the global agenda, like

• Trade, finance and economy
• Development and poverty reduction
• Sustainable development and environment
• Global health issues
• Social, labourmarket issues and human rights
• The new technology, digital divide and culture

Today’s conference

Today’s conference is the first in what we hope will be a series of conferences where research reports on specific issues will be presented and debated. The theme of the day – "Deficiencies in the Global Economy : tax competition, corruption, money laundering and economic crime" has after the tragic events of September the 11 ^th> become even more important than they seemed when this conference was planned. We know that tax havens and offshore financial centres were used by the terrorist groups for money laundering and for transferring assets through the global financial system. Every country is reviewing it’s own policies and we see a new willingness to address these issues at the international level. Norway supported the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1373 on measures to combat the financing of terrorism. A lot has been done already through international co-operation, but it has been a very slow and difficult process till now. There has been less pressure on economic crime since it often has less visible victims than other forms of crime have. This was changed by the attacks, and we can hope that changes in attitudes will lead to changes in policy and a strengthened international regime against economic crime. I hope today’s conference will give as some answers as to how we should go about to do this.

International corruption

International corruption has - at last - become an important part of the agenda for a large number of international organisations, national governments, NGOs and private corporations.

However, in spite of the rise in world-wide attention, precise knowledge about corruption remains limited. Transparency International’s celebrated corruption index is one of the few reliable sources available.

Global integration on one hand may lead to the international spread of corruption. On the other hand open, competitive and transparent markets may reduce the opportunities and incentives for corruption. We know that the main struggle against corruption must take place at the national level, but we need better understanding of how a global economy affects corruption.

OECD has adopted a convention against trans-country bribing which implies that the OECD countries (and a few non-OECD ones too) have had to change their internal laws to make it illegal to bribe abroad. Norway strongly supports these efforts to eradicate bribery and corruption.

Policy challenges related to tax havens and international tax competition

Hand in hand with the economic integration between countries and regions an immense growth of foreign direct investments and consequently a rising importance of multinational corporations have taken place. At the end of 1997, the gross product of all multinationals including parent firms stood at an estimated $8 trillion, comprising roughly a quarter of the world's gross domestic product. Although clearly a source of the increase in welfare experienced the last decades, economic integration, greater factor mobility and the escalating importance of multinationals also pose challenges to the autonomy of national policies.

Offshore finance and the politics of combating parasitic state strategies.

Today the major trading blocks are all surrounded by geographically small but financially large jurisdictions that seek to attract business through reduced regulation, minimal or no capital tax and tight secrecy laws. This situation is older than, but still linked to the current wave of financial globalization. This development has attracted increasing attention from the international community. Access to financial centers with tight secrecy laws facilitates money laundering. Measures to prevent that offshore finance facilitates organized crime is needed. Furthermore, without appropriate legal framework offshore financial centers facilitate fraudulent tax evasion and capital flight.

International cooperation and coordination on the problem of money laundering has made significant advances over the last 10 to 15 years. Driven forward by FATF an increasingly cohesive anti-money laundering regime is emerging, and the efforts have been stepped up following the tragic events of September 11.

Norway will continue to participate actively in all appropriate fora to address these and other deficiencies of the global economy.

We are committed to increased efforts to prevent developments and conditions where international crime may take advantage of globalisation.

I hope that this conference will help promote these goals.