Foreign Minister holds working breakfast with the OECD Secretary General

Monday, April 4, 2011

Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno received this morning the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Ángel Gurría, who is visiting our country.

On the occasion, the high officials held a working breakfast in the premises of the Foreign Ministry, which was also attended by Juan Andrés Fontaine, Minister of Economy; Felipe Kast, Minister of Planning; Maria Ignacia Benítez, Minister for the Environment, and Ana Novik, Director of Multilateral Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, Ana Novik.

The agenda of the OECD Secretary General in our country includes an audience with the President Sebastián Piñera; meetings with several Ministers and with the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate; the signing of a an agreement with the president of Banco Central and the inauguration of a exhibition to celebrate the OECD’s 50th anniversary, which will be attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Fernando Schmidt and the Secretary General.

Ángel Gurría’s visit take place  when Chile is approaching its first anniversary as a full member of OECD,  which occurred  on May 7, 2010 , when the Undersecretaries of Foreign Affairs and Finance deposited its instrument of accession to the OECD Convention  with the French government , depositary of this founding document.

Chile’s accession to the OECD entails several benefits to our country, encouraging the improvement of our public policies in areas such as education, innovation, environment, corporative governance, finance and investment, as well as the improvement of statistics collection to reach the level of more developed countries, which will allow having a more exhaustive knowledge of the national situation, resulting in a more effective design and implementation of our public policies.