OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of countries. Member countries of OECD all have a democratic system of government. They also accept the principle of a free economy. A country has a free economy when its government does not control the economic activities of its citizens and companies. 

The OECD started 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). The Second World War had just ended three years before in 1945. Some countries of Europe came together to form OEEC to help each other re-build their industry and other things destroyed in the Second World War. Later on, some non-European countries also joined this organisation. In 1960, OEEC changed its name, and it became OECD: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris.

Secretaries General
+ Secretary-General of the OECD No. Secretary-General Time served Country of origin Notes 1Thorkil Kristensen 30 September 1961 – 30 September 1969 Denmark 2Emiel van Lennep 1 October 1969 – 30 September 1984  Netherlands3Jean-Claude Paye1 October 1984 – 30 September 1994  France —Staffan Sohlman (interim) 1 October 1994 – November 1994  Sweden3Jean-Claude PayeNovember 1994 – 31 May 1996 France; Richard Woodward, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2009, Routledge)  4Donald Johnston 1 June 1996 – 31 May 2006 Canada 5José Ángel Gurría 1 June 2006 – 31 May 2021  Mexico6Mathias Cormann 1 June 2021 – present  Australia

Members
OECD has thirty-eight member countries, of which 19 became members in 1961. These countries are:
 Austria
 Belgium
 Canada
 Denmark
 France
 Germany
 Greece
 Iceland
 Ireland
 Luxembourg
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Portugal
 Spain
 Sweden
 Switzerland
 Turkey
 United Kingdom
 United States

19 countries joined OECD after 1961. The names of these countries (with the year they joined in brackets), are: 
 Italy (1962)
 Japan (1964)
 Finland (1969)
 Australia (1971)
 New Zealand (1973)
 Mexico (1994)
 Czechia (1995)
 Hungary (1996)
 South Korea (1996)
 Poland(1996)
 Slovakia (2000)
 Chile (2010)
 Estonia (2010)
 Israel (2010)
 Slovenia (2010)
 Latvia (2016)
 Lithuania (2018)
 Colombia (2020)
Costa Rica (2021)

 References 

Other websites
 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
 OECD iLibrary - OECD's portal for books, reports, statistics, working papers and journals
 International Futures Programme
 OECD Forum 
 Text of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
 The OECD Observer
 OECD Statistical portal 
 OECD-UNDP Partnership for Democratic Governance 
 Statistics
 Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

Video clips
 OECD YouTube channel

Category:OECD
Category:1948 establishments