WHILE speaking to the G20 leaders, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said, ''Today we have taken a major step forward to improve global tax cooperation.'' All G20 governments have now agreed to a multilateral Convention to tackle tax evasion more effectively, he added.

The Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters offers a wide range of tools for cross-border tax co-operation. It includes automatic exchange of information, multilateral simultaneous tax examinations and international assistance in the collection of tax due. At the same time, the Convention imposes safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information exchanged.

He said, ''The OECD looks forward to continuing to work with the G20 and other countries to maximize the benefits from this powerful multilateral instrument. Tax co-operation and compliance are of crucial importance for all countries and citizens - and not only in times of a tight fiscal and budgetary environment.”