Global business leaders push for infrastructure funding overhaul

SYDNEY: International business leaders are lobbying the Group of 20 bloc of advanced and developing countries to tackle a $57 trillion shortfall in global infrastructure, pressing for changes to funding rules they say would help big projects move ahead.

This week’s Sydney summit of the Business 20 group will push for lighter financial regulation and improved access to capital for businesses as it sets out a corporate blueprint for the world’s top economies to meet ambitious growth targets.

G20 finance ministers agreed in Sydney in February to draw up “real and effective plans to lift the global economy” by more than 2 percent “above the trajectory implied by current policies” over five years. They will meet again in Australia in September.

“We think that’s one of the most important decisions made at G20 meetings in the last few years,” B20 Chairman Richard Goyder, chief executive of Wesfarmers, told media.

Tackling the infrastructure deficit is one of four areas the B20 says is critical to meet this goal, alongside financing growth, slashing unemployment and boosting investment and trade. The B20 was set up in 2010 to give policy recommendations on behalf of the international business community to the G20. It has estimated that at least $57 trillion will be needed to finance infrastructure projects worldwide through 2030 to meet the demands of global economic growth.

Australia is the host of this year’s G20 meetings, a fact that B20 sherpa Robert Milliner said gave credibility to the talks, noting Australia’s record two decades of unbroken growth.

G20 finance ministers agreed in February to develop stricter rules on cross-border taxation to close loopholes that have allowed multinationals such as Starbucks Corp, Google Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc to avoid paying taxes. Finance ministers endorsed a set of common standards for sharing bank account information across borders with automatic exchange of information among G20 members to take effect by the end of 2015. Goyder said the B20 as a group endorsed a system under which taxes are levied where the profits are made, but he expressed scepticism that the G20 would be able to agree on a policy palatable to all countries. “We’ll leave it to governments to sort out,” he said.