As countries start to come through the global economic crisis, their governments are looking more and more to tax systems to help secure long-term financial stability. Their determination to shore up their revenues by closing off loopholes for tax evaders was given a huge boost by G20 leaders at Pittsburgh last month with the announcement of plans to monitor the clean-up of secretive tax havens.

This week, government representatives from over 84 countries and regions are meeting in Beijing to take forward the debate on how the tax and financial systems interact, and to see how tax can best support a sound financial sector environment in future.

The Beijing conference - hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and supported by the Asian Development Bank - is the third in a series of International Tax Dialogue (ITD) high level conferences in which countries meet to share experiences on tax policy and administration, for the benefit of both developing and developed countries.