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OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. It originated in 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), led by Frenchman Robert Marjolin, to help administer the Marshall Plan for the re-construction of Europe after World War II. Later its membership was extended to non-European states, and in 1960 it was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Objectives and action
The organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and co-ordinate domestic and international policies. It is a forum where peer pressure can act as a powerful incentive to improve policy and implement "soft law" — non-binding instruments that can occasionally lead to binding treaties.
Exchanges between OECD governments flow from information and analysis provided by a secretariat in Paris. The secretariat collects data, monitors trends, and analyses and forecasts economic developments. It also researches social changes or evolving patterns in trade, environment, agriculture, technology, taxation and other areas.
Over the past decade, the OECD has tackled a range of economic, social and environmental issues while further deepening its engagement with business, trade unions and other representatives of civil society. Negotiations at the OECD on taxation and transfer pricing, for example, have paved the way for bilateral tax treaties around the world.
Among other areas, the OECD has taken a role in co-ordinating international action on corruption and bribery, creating the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, which came into effect in February 1999.
The OECD has also constituted a task force on spam, which submitted a detailed report, with several quite useful background papers on spam problems in developing countries, best practices for ISPs and email marketers etc appended.
The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris.
Members
There are currently thirty full members; of these, 24 are described as high-income countries by the World Bank in 2003.
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Slovenia applied for membership on 14 March 1996, Malta on 24 September 2005.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) has observer status on two OECD committees, but due to its controversial status as a state, it is not a formal OECD member.
The Commission of the European Union is participating in the work of the OECD, alongside the EU Member States. For more information on OECD's work related to its member countries, visit OECD's country Web sites
By May 2007 (or some time after that), new members will join the OECD for the next time, most likely including the remaining EU members who are not yet OECD members (Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia; assuming that Bulgaria and Romania join in 2007, they would also be likely to join OECD), Israel and Chile. [1] [2]
Personnel policy
As an international organisation the terms of employment of OECD staff are not governed by the laws of the country in which their offices are located. Agreements with the host country safeguard the organisation's impartiality with regard to the host and member countries. Hiring and firing practices, working hours and environment, holiday time, pension plans, health insurance and life insurance, salaries, expatriation benefits and general conditions of employment are managed according to rules and regulations proper to the OECD. In order to maintain similar working conditions to similarly-structured organisations, the OECD participates as an independent organisation in the system of co-ordinated European organisations, whose other members include NATO, the Western European Union and the European Patent Office.
See also
External links
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