Voices
sponsibility on the scale required.
Some global firms have become
skilled at transcending national
jurisdictions to avoid obligations, be they on the environment
or tax. In a globalized commercial world, ensuring compliance
requires coordination between
countries that often compete for
investment. In Now for the Long
Term, the report of the Oxford
Commission for Future Generations, we call for a move to “revalue the future,” which includes
a number of ideas for focusing
business on the long term. Our
proposal for “innovative, open
and reinvigorated institutions”
fit for this century, not the last,
includes a call for a Voluntary
World Taxation and Regulatory
Exchange. This Exchange will
raise pressure on companies to
disclose their tax planning and
transfer pricing arrangements and
on governments to reveal preferential tax rulings.
Collectively, we need to rethink
corporate governance so that
owners and boards embrace longer-term mindsets and responsibilities to society at large. Above
all, we need business leaders to
invest their significant ingenuity,
creativity and resources on creat-
IAN
GOLDIN
ing long-term value.
Changing course in such ways
may seem contrary to the rational choices of individual investors
and companies. However, if we
do not step up to this challenge,
the collective result may be consequences so damaging future
generations will wonder how we
squandered our truly remarkable
opportunities. The consequences
of our actions will resonate for
generations to come. But the
choices are ours, and need
to be taken now.
Ian Goldin is the director of the Oxford
Martin School at Oxford University.
This post is part of a series produced
by The Huffington Post and The Oxford Martin Commission for Future
Generations, in conjunction with the
release of the latter’s report Now for
the Long Term, published by the Oxford Martin School at the University
of Oxford. The report’s recommendations aim to break the gridlock that
undermines attempts to address the
world’s biggest challenges; to bridge
the gap between knowledge and action; and to redress the balance between short-term political pressures
and a need to secure a sustainable,
inclusive and resilient future.
HUFFINGTON
10.27.13