GlOBAl_COMPETITIVENESS_REPORT – The World Economic Forum calculated competitiveness of 133 countries for 2009-2010.The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by attracting attention to regional agendas.
Switzerland is at the top of overall ranking. The United States falls one place to second position. Singapore, Sweden and Denmark round out the top five. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. (more…)

AUSTRIAN FAR-RIGHTS. The Austrian Parliament Tuesday made it easier to prosecute foreign tax evaders, by passing a law intended to get the country in line with international banking transparency standards. With this law, Austria took a first step to be removed from so-called grey list of tax havens drawn up by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. While Austria is not as important a banking centre as neighbouring Liechtenstein and Switzerland, it is the only European Union member on the OECD banking “grey list”. Besides Austria, the list contains non-EU countries that have not yet implemented these standards.
To be promoted to a financial “white list”, countries must sign at least 12 new bilateral fiscal treaties in which they agree to cooperate on tax evasion issues. Failure to quickly sign new tax deals may result in sanctions. The European Investment Bank has said it will cut off funding to Austrian banks’ projects abroad if it does not make the necessary changes by the March 2010 deadline. (more…)