Dear colleagues,

It is an honor to be here, and for Norway to be a guest country under South Africa’s G20 presidency.

Let me join others in thanking you for the great reception dinner yesterday, and for the amazing setting for this meeting.

The South African presidency has put African challenges at the center of the G20 agenda. I commend you for that.

One of the three priorities of your presidency is Equality. I strongly support that.

Inequality is bad for democracy, trust, stability and economic development. It fuels conflicts, nationally, regionally and internationally. The growing disparities we have seen during the last decades, with the main part of economic growth benefiting the richest, is a challenge for countries at all income levels. This should therefore continue to be on the G20 agenda. This is also a main priority for Norway, nationally, as well as in our development policy.

Fair taxation has become increasingly difficult in a world where capital can move too easily between countries, and secrecy jurisdictions provide safe havens with very low tax levels, or no tax at all.

The G20 has already done important work in this area, together with the OECD. These efforts need to continue, and Norway strongly supports the process towards a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.

Norway also strongly supports the focus on illicit financial flows, which has been important for Norway – as it has been for South Africa – for a long time. Norway was member of the Mbeki panel, and other initiatives, highlighting the enormous amounts going out of developing countries, not the least in Africa, and the huge consequences this has for reducing available financing for development.

This is duly reflected in the Compromiso de Sevilla. We therefore welcome the G20 Call to Action on Illicit Financial Flows approved at this meeting, and support continued work of the G20 on implementing its recommendations.

We also support the agreed Call to action on universal social protection systems.

Together with the G20 Emerging Principles on Global Public Goods, the Development working group, and this ministerial meeting, have really delivered and moved the development agenda forward. Thank you all for this excellent work!

Let me end by thanking South Africa for choosing these important topics as priorities for the G20 development working group this year, and for leading us through this important work with concrete results that we can all be proud of.

Thank you.