OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum Preparatory Meeting in Berlin highlights importance of good governance for stable economic development and security

BERLIN, 19 May 2016 – Co-operation on good governance is fundamental to strengthening economic stability and security said participants at the start of the two-day Second Preparatory Meeting of the Annual OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, today in Berlin.

In his opening address Special Representative of the Federal Government of Germany for the 2016 OSCE Chairmanship, Gernot Erler stated: “Good governance is a key, maybe the key, to improved economic relations in our common space. And economic cooperation is not only a goal in itself, but also an essential contribution to the prevention of conflicts between and within participating States and thereby to security and stability in the whole OSCE area.”

More than 200 high-level officials from the OSCE’s 57 participating States and 11 Partners for Co-operation as well as representatives of the business community, civil society and academia are discussing the need of good governance for business growth and a favourable investment climate. The Forum Meeting will also evaluate aspects of good migration governance to support stable economic development in countries of origin, transit and destination.

The Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, Yurdakul Yigitguden, stressed the importance of working together to make migration a key factor for economic development and growth for countries of origin, destination, the private sector and the migrants themselves. “There is a strong need to address dysfunctional labour migration polices that do not allow the most suitable allocation of human resources and skills where they are needed,” Yigitguden said.

Chairman of the Advisory Council and founder of Transparency International Peter Eigen stressed that “Civil society organisations with their professional competence and independence have to be strengthened to grow into a role of co-operation with other actors for better global governance.”

The findings from the meeting will complement conclusions from January’s 1st Preparatory Meeting in Vienna, and pave the way to the Forum’s Concluding Meeting in Prague on 14-16 September 2016. Also the German Chairmanship aims at feeding issues of good governance worked on in the Environmental Economic Forum into discussions of the Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg (8-9 December 2016).