DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The OECD aims to fight the "dark sides" of globalisation, such as corruption and tax evasion, as world leaders focus on stabilising their crisis-hit financial systems, the head of the Paris-based economics forum said on Tuesday.
Writing ahead of annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the 30-nation think tank, said political and business leaders needed "rewrite the rules of finance and global business."
In an article posted on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD's website (www.oecd.org), Gurria underscored Italy's push for a global "legal standard" on good governance and anti-corruption measures as part of its presidency of the Group of Eight rich nations.
"The OECD is focusing on a strategic response to the crisis involving specific policy recommendations. These include strengthening corporate governance and doing more to combat the dark sides of globalisation."
Gurria said the so-called Legal Standard proposed by Italy's Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti draws from work already carried out by international bodies, including the OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance and Anti-Bribery Convention.
"We are pursuing a collective long-term goal to build a stronger, cleaner and fairer global economy, free of the corruption, tax evasion, fraud, greedy exploitation and resource destruction that have discredited globalization and obstructed the benefits it can bring," he wrote.
In a separate article for Reuters' The Great Debate (http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/01/26/davos-debate-how-should-international-finance-be-reformed/), Gurria said financial markets had shown how they can fail and the limitations of state-run economies were well known.
"Clearly, what must work is a healthy balance between markets and governments," he wrote.
"We are entering a new global age and will need new rules of the game to secure future growth and welfare," Gurria, a former Mexican finance minister, said. "That means devising better policies, better regulations and better frameworks that enable businesses to flourish along new lines while safeguarding long-term public interests.
For full coverage, blogs and TV from Davos go to http://www.reuters.com/davos
(Reporting by Mike Dolan; editing by Andy Bruce)