Chile to Join the OECD
December 15th, 2009 at 9:33 pm - by Blake Allen
The Republic of Chile has been invited to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as its 31st member-state and as the organizations first member from South America.
Chile’s membership into the OECD will be formalized in January of 2010 with a signing between the current President of Chile; Michelle Bachelet and the Secretary-General of the OECD José Gurria who added in his statement on the Tuesday of December 15th, 2009 that the accession of Chile into the OECD “is a great contribution in our drive to expand our global reach and to transform the organization into a more plural and inclusive institution that will play an increasingly important role in the global economic architecture”
Many reformations needed to be made within Chilean legislation in order for the Republic to join the OECD. Particularly in areas regarding the exchange of tax information, legal responsibility in bribery cases and corporate governance with the final pending legislation for OECD admittance, which regarded the international exchange of tax information, having passed the Chilean Congress mere weeks ago.
The admission of Chile into the OECD will likely follow the electoral victory of Sebastian Pinera who if elected President in the run-off election set for January 17th, 2010 will be the first right-wing government to lead Chile since the infamous military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Bachelet has claimed that the membership of Chile into the OECD shows that the South American nation has been internationally regarded as having a solid economic management. All of this comes as Chilean Finance Minister Andres Velasco is set to present the final economic review of Chile before the OECD later this week.
Slovakia was the last country to be admitted into the OECD in 2000 however talks regarding the membership of Chile as well as Estonia, Israel, Slovenia and Russia in the OECD began back in 2007. However Chile remains the only one of these five applicants to be granted membership into this well-known economic organization of 30 nations.
