Third Asia Initiative Meeting: Reducing the Capability Gap to Improve Tax Transparency

As Chair of Asia Initiative, Director General of Taxes Suryo Utomo presided over the Third Asia Initiative Meeting, which took place at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Center in Spain.

As Chair of Asia Initiative, Director General of Taxes Suryo Utomo presided over the Third Asia Initiative Meeting, which took place at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Center in Spain.

Suryo Utomo communicated two primary topics: the most recent information on the Asia Initiative and the Asia Initiative's accomplishments.

Suryo Utomo communicated two primary topics: the most recent information on the Asia Initiative and the Asia Initiative's accomplishments.

.The meeting was attended by 33 participants from nine Asia Initiative jurisdictions and four organizational partners.

.The meeting was attended by 33 participants from nine Asia Initiative jurisdictions and four organizational partners.

The Asia Initiative is a multilateral cooperation platform in the Asian Region that promotes tax transparency to combat tax evasion and other illegal financial flows.

The Asia Initiative is a multilateral cooperation platform in the Asian Region that promotes tax transparency to combat tax evasion and other illegal financial flows.

Suryo Utomo, Director General of Taxes, also the Chair of the Asia Initiative, led the Third Asia Initiative Meeting which was held on 8 November 2022 in FIBES Conference and Exhibition Center, Seville, Spain. The high-level meeting was held at the margin of 15th  Global Forum Plenary Meeting and was attended by 33 participants from nine member jurisdictions and four organization partners.

In line with the outcomes of the Second Asia Initiative Meeting which was held in Bali 31 August to 2 September 2022, Suryo emphasized the importance of capacity building program to suppress the capability gap to implement transparency standard among member jurisdictions. As such, he explained, on 25-27 October 2022 Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) together with the Organisation for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted a virtual workshop on exchange of information for tax officials from Asian jurisdiction. He also expected that more capacity building will be conducted in the future and, as such, applauded that India will host two capacity building activities which will be held in February and September 2023.

Suryo also welcomed Kazakhstan that signed the Bali Declaration on 14 October 2022, making it as the 16th member of the Asia Initiative. Therefore, the 16 members of the Asia Initiative are Armenia, Brunei Darussalam, China (People’s Republic of), Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Macau (China), Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Pakistan, Singapore, and Thailand.

Although the Asia Initiative has made a lot of progress over the past year, there is still much work to be done, one of which is the importance of inviting jurisdictions in Asia that are not yet members to join the Asia Initiative. Therefore, Suryo used the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with tax commissioners from Viet Nam and Philippine during the 51st SGATAR meeting in Kuala Lumpur to invite them to join the Asia Initiative. "Both jurisdictions gave positive feedback," Suryo said.

In the meeting, Global Forum Secretariat presented documents listing all the progress and draft the outline of Asia Initiative Progress which will be released on 2023. Asia Initiative has started to make a move since its first meeting in February 2022 in Jakarta at the margin of G20 Finance Track Meeting as part of Indonesia G20 presidency. Subsequently, 13 jurisdictions joined the signing of Bali Declaration and Ministerial Meeting in July 2022 in Bali. Following the signing was the Second Asia Initiative meeting that took place in Bali from 31 August to 2 September 2022. The meeting generated ‘ambitious’ work plan which focused on capacity building program for its member jurisdictions. All the progresses made in those meetings were well delivered by the Global Forum Secretariat as part of the meeting agenda on stock-taking of the Asia Initiative since its launch in the Global Forum Plenary Meeting 2021.

At the end of the meeting, all participants agreed to meet again in India in 2023 to reflect things achieved by the Asia Initiative. All participants also commit to echo the positive role of Asia Initiative as a multilateral co-operation platform to enhance tax transparency within Asian region to fight against tax evasion and illicit financial flow.

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