The Republic of the Congo (hereafter “Congo”) joins the international fight against tax evasion by becoming the 165th member – and 34th African member – of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The country’s decision to join the Global Forum was made public on the last day of the 11th meeting of the Africa Initiative, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 14 to 16 June 2022.
Members of the Global Forum include all G20 countries, all OECD members, all international financial centres and a large number of developing countries.
"We are delighted to welcome Congo as the latest Global Forum member," said Maria José Garde, Chair of the Global Forum. "The regular enlargement of the Forum’s membership highlights the importance given to tax transparency by the international community, and the resolve of governments to come together to fight and prevent tax evasion and avoidance."
Like all other members, Congo will participate on an equal footing and is committed to combatting offshore tax evasion through the implementation of the internationally agreed standards of exchange of information on request (EOIR) and automatic exchange of information (AEOI).
Congo will also participate in the Africa Initiative, a programme of work launched in 2014 to support domestic revenue mobilisation and the fight against illicit financial flows in Africa through enhanced tax transparency and exchange of information. The recently published Tax Transparency in Africa 2022 progress report underlined the Initiative’s achievements to date and presented its various work streams.
The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the exchange of information on request standard and the standard of automatic exchange of information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.