If things carry on at the current, highly dynamic pace, Romania will join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2026, Secretary of State with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and national coordinator for Romania's OECD accession process Luca Niculescu declared on Tuesday, informs Agerpres.
"We have no delay, so far we are going according to plan. There is a political consensus that helps us a lot. There are 26 chapters we have to complete. At the end of this process we have to be aligned with the OECD political standards and best practices. There are 26 committees that monitor Romania's progress towards OECD accession and that cover practically all areas of public life, from good governance, anti-corruption, to agriculture, health, education. Almost everything is somehow connected with OECD. Step by step we go through assessment by these committees and once the procedure is completed, we will join the organization as a member. So far we have successfully completed six such chapters," Niculescu on Tuesday told the 5th edition of the Romanian Economic Forum organized by FinMedia and the Financial Market publication.
According to the official, the business environment is the best ally of the authorities on the way to joining the OECD, as this will bring more investments in the first place.
"More money will come to our country, there will be more foreign investments. Many investment funds have, among their project-financing criteria, the respective state's OECD membership, but it's not only about investments. It is simply about better governance. This country will be well-governed once we join the OECD. The policies proposed by the OECD are based on data, figures, statistics, and are probably the best policies in the world," added Luca Niculescu.
He emphasized that Romania's becoming an OECD member will also mean an improvement of its administrative capacity.
"The people working in administration will be better, more competent, because we learn from each other, we learn from the OECD Secretariat, from the experts there, but, even more importantly, we learn from their colleagues from other OECD countries, because there is a permanent interaction between those who deal with the same activity field. At the same time, Romania will participate in the development of norms and standards with global impact," the Secretary of State also said.
According to him, a large part of the Romanian legislation represents the transposition of directives elaborated by the European Union, but a good part of the laws put forth at EU level are considered before in the OECD.
In Niculescu's opinion, Romania's accession to the OECD will represent "a new anchor for the country's modernization, for the consolidation of its status among solid democracies, based on rules and the rule of law."
Stressing that Romania's accession to the OECD is a goal pledged and supported by the entire political class, the academic milieu and the civil society, Niculescu said that this global economic forum "means more than material wealth, it means a vast, very comprehensive expertise in almost all areas of public life, it means a unique cooperation platform for the member states. (...) A total of approximately 100 countries throughout the world benefit from the OECD's experience with finding concrete solutions to common problems."
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