Position Paper for the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary
The issue before the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary 2014 is: Increasing and coordinating efforts to fight international tax evasion. The World Bank is fully committed to the fight against international tax evasion as the profit made from either corporate or income tax can be used to support the affected countries in various ways, such as improved commitment to the UN or the World Bank committee.
The WB is deeply concerned about tax evasion and its consequences concerning the world and its economy. By making use of non-standard tax havens or offshore banking accounts, companies and individuals exploit their country and therefore damage the country’s liability and economy. As that unjust advantage deceives the affected country, it is a major threat not only to that, but also to the world’s economy. The World is of the mind that, even if only a minority, not paying your tax imposes an unfair burden on the honest majority and prevents money from reaching the crucial public services that need it. One must stop people cheating the tax system and collect more of what is owed. The British tax gap in the 2010 to 2011 financial year was estimated to be £9 billion formed of tax evasion and avoidance. Losses caused by corruption and tax evasion are powerful examples of how criminal activities can potentially have tremendous negative effects on economic development. Also, ill-gotten money is not spent on productive investments that can have a multiplier effect on an economy and benefit the significant majority of a population, rather than just a select few. We, policymakers in governments and development institutions such as the World Bank, cannot afford to ignore issues that stand in the way of achieving economic progress, because it means that many people remain in poverty. Addressing corruption and tax evasion should be part of a continuing dialogue between the governments and policymakers all around the globe. It is very important for developing countries to adapt. The regimes should reflect local political, economic and social contexts to successfully fight against tax evasion.
The World Bank is fully convinced of the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters that was signed by a total of more than 60 countries and wishes to extend its influence by increasing the number of parties that are included in the convention. The idea of an automatic exchange of information to become the new international tax standard of exchange of information strongly appeals to the WB and therefore it fully supports the ideas of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The administrative co-operation between states in the assessment and collection of taxes, simultaneous tax examinations and international assistance in the collection of tax debts can only be of benefit to all the states as well as the latest amendment of better transparency in order to have improved international standards for the exchange of information and the benefit for LEDCs (least economically developed countries).
The Canadian Economic Action Plan 2013 is also assessed administrable by the WB in increasing and coordinating efforts to fight international tax evasion due to the plan of extending reassessment periods for taxpayers who failed their tax reports or the revision of the Form T1135. The WB believes in the Plan’s potential and holds that the extended reassessment periods should be integrated in an international treaty fighting transnational tax evasion.
The World Bank also fully supports the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and strongly appeals Chapter IV of UNCAC stating that State Parties are obliged to assist one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders. However, its provisions do not exhaust all international cooperation issues covered by UNCAC, thus the purposes of UNCAC and provisions of other chapters also need to be taken into consideration and continuation.
To address the issue of international tax evasion and its consequences, the World Bank calls upon the international community to fight against the corruption and damage caused by defraudation of tax. The delegates of the World Bank consider the changes seen in the economy of the affected states as critical and insists the world governments to improve the current situation so that the countries do not have to experience such giant losses again.
The World Bank is strongly convinced of introducing stricter measures against those who commit tax evasion and international courts governing trials concerning this matter.
Another option is introducing more detailed reports on where companies and private individuals get their income from and where they store and invest it.
The WB has surprisingly achieved more positive results than expected by giving people and companies opportunities to declare what they owe. The HMRC (Her Majesty’s Customs & Revenue) is running a new publicity campaign against tax evasion to encourage people to tell what they owe, before they will be tracked down. So far, HMRC has raised £547 million from voluntary disclosures, and almost £140 million from follow-up activity including 20,000 completed investigations. As a great example, the WB encourages the international community to join the UK’s campaign.
HMRC is also taking swifter legal action against those who do not come forward to sort out their taxes by recruiting additional criminal investigators to increase the number of people prosecuted for tax evasion from 165 to 1,165. Tax evasion cases are being brought before the criminal and civil courts, however the WB would appreciate an international court governing the trials as suggested above.
The World Bank also suggests to introduce capacity building programmes such as the UK’s Developing countries Capacity Building Unit’s programme with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania which was introduced in May 2013. The unit is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and, again, run by HMRC. HMRC and the Tanzanian and Ethiopian authorities will work together to tailor HMRC best practice to the infrastructure and resources available to help these countries in order to strengthen their tax administrations. This could be in areas such as tax inspector training, improving the revenue authority’s website, developing a complaints handling process, or bringing in a risk management system. Since 2010 there has been an annual 40% increase in revenue collection in Ethiopia, supported by the first phase of HMRC’s partnership with the Ethiopian authorities. The UN should advocate the international cooperation to improve the tax collection in developing countries, also enhancing the conditions for a tax evasion free world economy.

Position Paper for the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary
The issue before the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary 2014 is: Addressing Systemic Poverty in LEDCs.
The World Bank is deeply concerned about how systemic poverty can affect a whole nation’s economy. The affected countries cannot escape from systematic poverty without external intervention. Therefore the WB fully supports actions to break the “cycle of poverty” in LEDCs.
Taking note that most LEDCs have colonial history, these countries now lack education and agricultural and manufacturing skills as well as social and cultural progress. These countries are often trapped in the “cycle of poverty” which they can’t escape from without external help.
As the WB’s official goal is the reduction of world poverty, the delegates believe in the World Bank’s a moral responsibility to help the poor and to escape systemic poverty. Due to that the WB wants to maximize the impact of its aid budget.
The World Bank also regards education as very important as well as its improvement in LEDCs.
The World Bank strongly believes that women are a key to economic growth and plans to invest in girls’ education as one of the most effective improvements possible to try breaking the “Cycle of Poverty”.
The WB will also support innovative and effective non-governmental organizations that are committed to tackling poverty and encourages the UN Countries to fulfil their aid commitments and support action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Position Paper for the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary
The issue before the Second Committee of the General Assembly Plenary 2014 is: Ameliorating the economic situation of landlocked developing countries. The WB is fully committed to the improvement of LLDCs as it stands for the reduction of poverty all over the world.
The lack of sea access hardens trade for LLDCs, which makes it even harder to improve their situation in comparison with regular LEDCs. Outside of Europe there is not a single landlocked country that is highly developed. 16 out of 31 landlocked countries are still developing. The example of Europe emphasises that every single LLDC can develop. Those countries must pay higher transportation costs as much as the double in contrast with countries to the sea. The remoteness from the sea is a serious problem and shows the impact that geographical structure can have on the economy of countries. The greatest distance from the sea is found in Kazakhstan with 3750 km followed by Afghanistan, Chad, Niger, Zambia and Zimbabwe. There are not only high costs but also there is a lot of time consumed transporting goods to the nearest harbour from the centre of the country. This makes said countries very unattractive for trade partnerships. That however must be changed.
The World Bank will do its best to ameliorate the issue of the economic situation in LLDCs. The UN Resolution of implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010 (A/56/645), the Report of the Secretary General of the UN ( A/56/227 ) and the Almaty Programme of Action all appeal to the World Bank and are fully supported to be taken even further.