Romania's economic performance in recent years has been very impressive, OECD Secretary General Matthias Cormann told a joint press release with Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Thursday.
The statements were made after the Romanian Prime Minister submitted to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development the initial memorandum regarding Romania's accession to the OECD, told Agerpres.
"Romania has been a close friend and a valued partner to the OECD for many years. Our cooperation began in the 1990s, we have worked together on many different economic and social policy areas ranging from capital market reforms to competition policies, education, health and, of course, our cooperation on the OECD/G20 project on tax base erosion and profit shifting. Romania's economic performance in recent years has been very impressive," Matthias Cormann said.
He mentioned that Romania quickly approached the OECD average per capita income, reducing the difference from 70% to approximately 35% in less than 20 years.
"The percentage of the Romanian population at risk of poverty or social exclusion has decreased, and Romania has made important progress in terms of the internal reform agenda," said the Secretary General of the OECD.
He mentioned that, after Romania submitted the initial memorandum regarding the accession to the OECD, 26 technical committees would assess Romanian legislation, policies and practices," covering almost every field" of government policies. Recommendations will be made to help Romania align, further, with OECD standards and practices.
"As we have seen with previous accession candidate countries, the accession process is a transformation, which will help catalyze further reforms that benefit Romania and most importantly its citizens," said the Secretary General of the OECD.
Matthias Cormann also stated that, in the context of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the global economic outlook has worsened in recent months.
"I think we can all agree that a swift end to the war, with a just peace for Ukraine, consistent with international law, would be in everyone's best interest. In these profoundly challenging and disruptive period globally, we need more - not less - cooperation. We need more - not less - multilateralism. And institutions like the OECD will be important partners in defining, pursuing and implementing multilateral solutions to common challenges," he said.
At the same time, he showed that Romania continues to make efforts to support OECD values and to promote reforms, including outside its borders.
"Romania's priorities are well aligned with the OECD agenda, promoting more inclusive growth, optimizing trade and investment, fostering innovation, protecting the environment and fighting corruption, as well as optimizing education, health and market policies. Prime Minister Ciuca and I had an opportunity to discuss these priorities when we launched the 2022 OECD Economic Survey of Romania earlier this year. Since my visit to Romania, the OECD members have adopted the roadmap for Romania's accession to the OECD," said Matthias Cormann.
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