Thomas Bata, owner of the global shoe corporation that bears his name, died in Toronto on 1 September, aged 93. A founding father of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) in 1962, Mr Bata served as BIAC chairman from 1968-1970, and remained active in the organisation, chairing BIAC’s non-member committee at the time of his death.

The first ever full OECD ministerial meeting held in Asia closed in June with a declaration to build confidence and secure the future of the Internet economy. The declaration sets out a roadmap to upgrade the communication policies that have helped the Internet become the economic driver that it is today and safeguard its future development.

Concerns for the world economy were already building when OECD governments met for the annual Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) last June.

US President George W. Bush is greeted by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría during a visit to the OECD headquarters on 13 June 2008.

Cristina Narbona Ruiz takes up her post as the new ambassador for Spain. She succeeds Fernando Ballestero Díaz.

Now at Harvard, Professor Sen has taught around the world, and is perhaps most noted for his work on development, human development, poverty, gender and welfare, for which he won his Nobel prize. His wife, economic historian Emma Rothschild, has written for the OECD Observer (The politics of globalisation circa 1773, No 228, September 2001).
For more information, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes /economics/laureates/1998/ sen-autobio.html

Anthony Gooch took up his post as director of public affairs and communications at the OECD on 1 April 2008. Before joining the OECD, Mr Gooch led the European Commission’s media and public diplomacy operations in the UK projecting the EU’s policies on global issues including climate change, trade and development.

Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel has been appointed chief economist of the OECD. A national of Germany and Chile, he joins the OECD after 12 years as chief of economic research at the Central Bank of Chile. From 1988 to 1996 he was successively economist, senior economist and principal economist at the World Bank.

How to be green and competitive was the centre of attention when environment ministers of OECD countries met at the end of April for the first time in four years. How to fight climate change and maintain competitiveness is a question that concerns many countries outside the OECD too, and the governments of four candidate countries for OECD membership–Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia–participated at the conference, as did Brazil, China, Indonesia and South Africa, four countries with whom the OECD is strengthening its relations in a programme of “enhanced engagement”.

4 March -
Norio Hattori is the new OECD ambassador for Japan. He succeeds Shinichi Kitajima.

4 March -
Wolfgang Petritsch takes up his post as new ambassador for Austria succeeding Ulrich Stacher.

It may be a truism among economists by now to state that more competition can improve a country’s economic performance by creating business opportunities, reducing costs of goods and services and boosting choice. But numerous laws and regulations still restrict competition in the marketplace.

Wikigender.org: Did you know that over 40% of girls in Bangladesh are married before the age of 15? Or that 95% of Egyptian women had undergone some form of female genital cutting?

The gap in productivity and economic performance between the US and Europe has been a source of much debate in recent years, but many experts seem agreed on one point: that a lack of progress on reform in labour and product markets has not helped the European cause.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts a special conference with heads of international organisations on “Fair Ground Rules for a Socially Equitable and Open Global Economy,” Berlin, 19 December 2007. To Ms Merkel’s right are Angel Gurría (OECD), Pascal Lamy (WTO) and Juan Somavia (ILO), and to her left are Germany’s labour minister, Olaf Scholz, Robert Zoellick (World Bank) and Dominique Strauss-Kahn (IMF).

How do your taxes and social benefits differ from your peers in other countries and what is the effect on your income? How much income do unemployed people get in different countries? The new OECD online taxbenefit calculator may have the answer. Our experts have taken all those complex legal rules about who is entitled to what benefit and who should pay how much tax in different countries and put them into a simple tax-benefit calculator so that you can decide yourself which comparisons you would like to make.

With ageing and pressure on public finances, monitoring the pensions market has become an important task for policymakers. The market is vast: in 2006 the total OECD funded pensions market was valued at some $24.6 trillion, with a ratio of OECD pension fund assets to OECD GDP of nearly 73% in 2006, and above 100% in a few countries.

With ocean stocks depleting, sustainable fisheries is now high on political agendas in OECD countries. Governments grappling with reform may find it reassuring to know that one of the OECD’s oldest committees, the Committee for Fisheries, is still going strong after 46 years at the helm. Indeed, the committee just held its 100th session on 29-31 October 2007.

The environment, particularly climate change, features high on the agenda in OECD business in the months ahead.

“Environment and Global Competiveness” is the theme of the 2008 OECD environment ministers meeting (Meeting of OECD Environment Policy Committee at Ministerial Level), which will take place 28-29 April. Among the highlights, ministers will discuss the results of the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030, to be released on 5 March. Policy discussions will likely touch on environmental priorities for the coming decades, environmental co-operation with major emerging economies, competitiveness, eco-innovation and climate change.

Finland took the number one spot in the OECD’s PISA 2006 survey, a comprehensive and much-quoted international yardstick of secondary school student performance. Finland was followed by Hong Kong- China, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Estonia, Japan and New Zealand. Australia, the Netherlands, Korea, Germany, the UK, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and Ireland also scored above the OECD average. Mexico finished last among OECD countries.

Work and family constraints can lead to too few children and too little employment, affecting quality of life and economic performance. Yet many parents would like to go out to work more, while others would like to spend more time raising their children. What can policymakers do to help parents achieve a better work/family balance? The OECD’s Babies and Bosses series offers some lessons.

The OECD is a world leader in statistics, but keeping up that lead demands innovation. The statistics services of the OECD already provide smart databases online at www.oecd.org/statistics, while graphs and tables in many of our publications are backed up with our new StatLink service, a link allowing access to source Excel files at a click. Now the OECD has gone another step by opening its data out to websites that specialise in lively use and presentation of the statistics, and reader interaction.

Learn more, earn more? Some of the issues raised in Education at a Glance 2007 formed a recent online public discussion in our Ask the Economists series. Andreas Schleicher, head of the OECD’s Education Indicators and Analysis division and a lead author of Education at a Glance, fielded questions from readers in Chile, China, Germany, Spain and the UK on Wednesday 3 October. Below is a sample.

Third-level education brings many benefits, and not just for the most educated. Higher education has expanded greatly in OECD countries in the past few decades, and the result as expected has been a rise in the number of graduates. But has the increasing supply of well-educated labour been matched by the creation of an equivalent number of highpaying jobs? Or will more and more people with university degrees simply have to work for the minimum wage?

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shakes hands with OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría at the launch of a new multilateral initiative called the Partnership for Democratic Governance (PDG).The new initiative is designed to assist those developing countries that need help to improve governance, strengthen capacity and accountability, and deliver the services that are essential supports of effective government.

Click to view video

On 19 June 2007 South Africa became the first African country to join the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention. The still photo shows South Africa's ambassador to France, Nomasonto Maria Sibanda-Thusi, welcomed by OECD secretary-general, Angel Gurría.

Cotis leads top French bureau–
Jean-Philippe Cotis, the OECD’s chief economist, has been appointed as director general of the French national statistics institute INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, or the National Statistics and Economic Studies Institute).

Even the sharpest leading edge companies can no longer survive on their own R&D efforts, but must open up their networks and collaborate with others: this was the main message from an expert meeting held at the OECD on 27 April called “Globalisation and Open Innovation”.

“You cannot really manage the environment without a strong economy.” The remark seems oddly appropriate, sitting in an office overlooking the expansive woodland of the Bois de Boulogne, a “green lung” in the wealthy if congested west of Paris.

How can civil society help to make development aid more effective? Some 30 civil society organisation (CSO) representatives met to discuss this question on 7 March, at the OECD headquarters, with the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness, an international partnership of donors and recipient countries, hosted by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

For a complete list, including those in French and Spanish, go to www.oecd.org/secretarygeneral

A collection of about 100 of the most relevant internationally agreed chemical testing methods used by government, industry and independent laboratories are now available free online.

Japan, the US, the Netherlands and Italy present the face of Secretary-General Angel Gurría’s newly appointed team of deputy secretaries-general (DSGs) to guide the OECD into the next era. Mari Amano will bring his 34 years of experience as a Japanese foreign affairs official to take charge of the Development Cluster and Policy Coherence dossier.

Kiyotaka Akasaka, deputy secretary-general at the OECD, has been appointed United Nations Undersecretary general for communications and public information. Mr Akasaka came to the OECD in 2003 and has most recently been responsible for the OECD’s work on development, the environment, sustainable development and for partnerships with other international organisations. Mr Akasaka takes up his new post in spring 2007.

White protective covers drape the main OECD office building as asbestos is removed.

Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden visited the OECD headquarters in Paris on 4 December 2006. The Crown Princess met OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría (photo), other senior officials of the OECD secretariat and Swedish personnel in the OECD. Crown Princess Victoria was participating in a diplomat training programme at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Discussions at the OECD covered the economy, agriculture, trade and early childhood education and care.

©OECD Observer, No. 258/259, December 2006

Secretary-General Angel Gurría participates at the annual World Economic Forum which took place in Davos, Switzerland, 24-28 January 2007. Climate change was a major talking point at this year’s meeting; Mr Gurría emphasised that “energy-environment has to be the focus today”.

©OECD Observer

“One of the most remarkable transitions in modern history,” is how Secretary-General Angel Gurría described Poland’s accomplishments since the end of the Cold War, in a special address at a conference celebrating 10 years of Polish membership of the OECD held in Warsaw on 23 November 2006.

A new OECD site for electronic

In 1996 just when the Korean government took the initiative and worked hard to join the OECD, some media and civil society organisations were reluctant to extend their support. They worried, saying that it would be too premature for Korea to join the rich man’s club and would cause us great losses.

Will the Millennium Development Goals launched in 2000 be met by the agreed deadline of 2015? This question is at the top of discussions in government and development agencies around the world. There have been several initiatives to help focus minds and boost international progress towards meeting the goals, not least by the G8.

Welcoming address of Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister Okyu Kwon to a special conference in Seoul 22 September 2006, marking Korea’s 10th anniversary in the OECD.

We know quite a lot about how to increase employment rates, but there is no single road to Rome…or Moscow! So said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, in an address to the meeting of G8 employment and labour ministers in Moscow, 9-10 October 2006. The secretary-general went on to outline the main lessons learned in the recent 2006 reassessment of the 1994 OECD Jobs Strategy and pointed to new challenges.

The OECD's core mission is to help make the world economy work better, Secretary-General Angel Gurría said in a keynote address to the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Strasbourg, 4 October 2006. While the organisation's work is well known, stronger partnerships with parliamentarians are needed to strengthen its impact and influence, Mr Gurría said.

Governments around the world need to be better prepared for large-scale catastrophes and take a more proactive role in working with the insurance industry and other players, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría told participants at the inaugural meeting of the OECD International Network on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes in Paris, 8 September 2006.

Higher education cannot escape major and sometimes difficult change, and OECD governments were determined to lead those changes, rather than be driven by them. This was how Marietta Giannakou, minister of national education and religious affairs of Greece, wrapped up her conclusions as chair of the 2006 Education Ministers’ Meeting.

Angel Gurría, the new secretary-general of the OECD, who took up his post at the head of the Organisation from 1 June 2006. Mr Gurría, a former finance minister of Mexico, was appointed last November. He takes over from Donald J. Johnston, who has stepped down after two terms in office.

The Chernobyl accident was the worst in the history of commercial nuclear power and contaminated large territories in the former Soviet Union and Europe. Twenty years later, its consequences still affect the daily lives of many people.

The OECD has launched a Global Forum on Space Economics to help researchers better analyse the opportunities and challenges facing the space sector and its technology applications. Space affects people’s daily lives more than ever before and is a growing international policy concern. From exploration to communications technology and intelligence, the world increasingly relies on space. There are problems to consider too, such as satellite interference and safety. Yet, the reality of budget constraints make co-operation essential.

An action statement to help small and medium-sized enterprises was launched at a conference on “Better Financing for Entrepreneurship and SME Growth” held in Brazil on 27-30 March 2006 (see previous edition, No. 254).

On 4 April OECD development and environment ministers meet in Paris. The aim is to push for more progress on the many areas that link the environment and development.

The OECD Development Centre has appointed Javier Santiso as their new chief economist. Mr Santiso, a Spanish and French national, took up his post on 1 December 2005.

Access to financing continues to be a significant impediment to the creation, survival and growth of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). Although the role of smaller firms in innovation and employment cannot be underestimated, from a bank’s point of view SMEs tend to have a high risk profile, especially innovative ones.

“Trust comes on foot, but leaves on horseback.” This old Dutch saying was evoked by Alexander Pechtold, Netherlands minister for Government Reform and Kingdom Relations, as both a warning and a challenge in his concluding remarks as chair of the OECD ministerial meeting, “Strengthening Trust in Government: What Role for Government in the 21st Century?”, held in Rotterdam on 28 November 2005.

Alan Greenspan, who stepped down after almost two decades as chair of the US Federal Reserve on 31 January 2006, was by no means a stranger to the OECD. In fact, as chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers between 1974 and 1977, he played a leading role in the OECD's Economic Policy Committee in 1975 and 1976 (our photo).

Who owes what, how and where? Understanding the international array of tax treaties can be a headache for businesses everywhere, not to mention tax authorities. There are 2,500 such treaties in force around the world, covering everything from income tax to pension plan liabilities. No one, be they companies or governments or individuals, likes to be short-changed, which makes global tax such a sensitive issue.

The OECD’s 30 member countries announced the appointment of Angel Gurría, former foreign minister and finance minister of Mexico, as secretary-general of the OECD from 1 June 2006. Mr Gurría will succeed Donald J. Johnston, who is retiring after two terms at the top of the organisation.

Time for a change, was how social affairs ministers summed up their major meeting at the OECD in March–the first in seven years. Rather than merely insuring against misfortune, social policies must become pro-active, stressing investment in people’s capabilities and the realisation of their potential.

Here is a list of user-friendly Internet addresses (URLs) for fast access to specific areas of the OECD's work programme on www.oecd.org.

The search is on for a new secretary-general to replace Donald J. Johnston, who will step down in May 2006 after 10 years in the post (OECD Observer No. 246-247). OECD countries have been asked to put forward candidates by 15 July 2005. It is expected that by 1 December 2005 the name of the successful candidate will be known.

Chinese-OECD relations have developed strongly ever since the OECD Council decided, in October 1995, to launch a programme of dialogue and co-operation with China.

What have humanitarian aid and Swiss army knives got in common? How is aid measured, and what is “phantom” aid? Is the situation after the tsunami tragedy improving? You can read about these issues in the OECD Observer of course, but there is a constant need for policymakers and NGOs to stay ahead of them.

How can we feed future generations without causing significant environmental damage? This was the challenge agricultural, food and fisheries scientists grappled with at a meeting in Rome in May to launch the next phase of the OECD’s Co-operative Research Programme, which contributes to providing the scientific knowledge needed for effective food and agriculture policies.*

Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) are a form of institutional investment through which individuals pool their funds and hire professionals to manage their investments, with each investor entitled to a share of the net benefits of ownership.

A decade ago, even thinking about expanding nuclear energy was almost taboo in some OECD countries, but this may now be changing. For Luis Echávarri, director-general of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), those taboos are now being challenged as governments and people everywhere seem ready to openly discuss the potential of the nuclear option.

OECD Secretary General Donald J. Johnston and ministers and senior officials from OECD countries joined heads of government and ministers from Arab states at a conference at the Dead Sea in Jordan on 6-7 February 2005 to launch a major programme to promote good governance for development in the region.

Anker Randsholt (1916-2004), who passed away on 30 November 2004 at the age of 88, was founding editor of the OECD Observer. Mr Randsholt was appointed to set up the magazine by the OECD’s first secretary-general, Thorkil Kristensen.

A winter coat of snow reflects changing times at the Château de la Muette, OECD’s headquarters in Paris.

Russia should ease limits on foreign ownership in banking and insurance, domestic transport and energy industries, and improve regulatory transparency to attract more investment, according to a new OECD report.

Astronomers have made enormous progress in the past few decades, developing a convincing model of the origin, evolution and distribution of the visible matter in the Universe, from asteroids and planets to the large-scale structure of clusters of galaxies. But the model fails to explain the composition of some 96% of the contents of the Universe (the enigmatic “dark matter” and “dark energy”) and does not explain the origin or distribution of life.

It may seem obvious that development influences climate change and vice versa, but do experts on climate change and development really have any influence on each other? If not, they should, as was demonstrated at a recent OECD Global Forum on Sustainable Development: Development and Climate Change, held at the OECD on 11-12 November 2004.

The prime minister of the Republic of Turkey,Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gives a press conference on his visit to the OECD on 21 October 2004.

How much do emotions influence learning? Could adults learn to learn? Which teaching methods could help children to reduce dyslexia and dyscalculia?

Governments are always keen to do their utmost to help businesses thrive, not least in local economies, and to encourage initiative and entrepreneurial attitudes to become more widespread. But the stakes are high. Some two-thirds of new firms survive at least two years, and only about half survive at least four. OECD figures show that firms that remain in business after the first two years have a 60-70% chance of surviving for at least five more years.

What would strike you as being a good idea for a 40th anniversary edition of a magazine? Get in touch with the first-ever editor of course. Well, I didn’t. I mean, where to begin? Luckily, just before deadline, the first-ever editor got in touch with us. “This is Anker Randsholt,” boomed a voice.

Three years after the adoption of the OECD 10-year Environmental Strategy, ministers acknowledged that they are “not on track” for implementing it by 2010 and that more ambitious action is needed. OECD and non-OECD ministers or deputy-ministers met in Paris to assess progress.

“The never-ending search for competitive advantage in the global knowledge economy has led all public policymakers to focus on education as a key factor in strengthening competitiveness, employment and social cohesion.” This was how Noel Dempsey, Ireland’s minister for education and science, summed up the importance of education at a lively meeting of OECD education ministers in Dublin in March.

Four OECD countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic – are among the 10 new members that joined the EU on 1 May. Government leaders from two of these recently visited the OECD: the prime minister of Hungary, Péter Medgyessy, on 8 April, and on 22 April, Poland’s foreign minister, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz.

Governments must step up their fight against spam or risk seeing consumer and business confidence in the Internet buried under a mountain of junk e-mail, the OECD has warned.

Latvia has signed up to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. The invitation from OECD members recognised Latvia’s general openness to foreign direct investment and will reinforce the Latvian government’s efforts to pursue investment-friendly economic reforms.

South Africa has become the first nonmember country to join an OECD system for sharing results of safety tests on chemicals that saves governments and chemical producers some US$60 million a year.

How healthy are the global economy, multilateral co-operation, and indeed the general public? The OECD’s Forum 2004 will seek answers to these and other questions on the international policy agenda under the theme “Health of nations” at the Centre de Conférences Internationales in Paris on 12-13 May 2004.

David Lyscom took up his post as UK ambassador to the OECD on 14 January, succeeding Christopher Crabbie. Ambassador Lyscom is a career diplomat who served as UK ambassador to Slovakia from 1998 to 2001, and had previously held posts in Vienna, Ottawa, Bonn and Riyadh, as well as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. He had served as a Special Project Manager at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office immediately before being named to the OECD post.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), a sister body of the OECD, has won a US award for the analytical excellence of its 2003 World Energy Investment Outlook.

A key Millennium Development Goal agreed at the 2002 Johannesburg summit on sustainable development is to halve the numbers of people in developing countries without access to safe water and basic sanitation. A meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in April will review progress in achieving these targets.

The Secretary-General and the OECD community strongly condemn the barbaric act perpetrated in Madrid on 11 March. The fight against terrorism is a priority for OECD members. Only international co-operation and a reinforced determination will put an end to this plague undermining our democracies.

Businesses form the largest single group of OECD Observer readers online, according to a readership survey conducted by FT Business and the OECD Observer in September-October 2003.

The OECD is an organisation with a bright future and a key role to play, as long as it carries out some serious reforms. A difficult, but necessary challenge, says Jorma Julin, Ambassador of Finland to the OECD.

Constance Morella has taken up the post of US ambassador to the OECD, succeeding Jeanne Phillips. Mrs Morella was the first woman member of the Maryland state legislature to be elected to the US Congress, where she represented Maryland in the House of Representatives from 1987 until January 2003.

Representatives of 40 countries agreed to work intensively to make progress towards achieving a level playing field at the global level on taxation issues, during a meeting of the OECD Global Forum on Taxation in Ottawa in October.

Korea’s economic transformation has been one of the most remarkable of the past century. From the ashes of a terrible war, in a short period of time it rose to become an industrial power, joining the OECD in 1996. Korea has now set itself the ambition of becoming a knowledge-based economy.

Romania's president, Ion Iliescu, on a visit to the OECD, 21 November 2003. Though not a member, Romania participates in OECD work on shipbuilding and steel. The OECD has published a number of studies on the Romanian economy.

During a speech to the OECD Council in Paris in July, Czech president Vaclav Klaus took stock of his country’s economic record since 1995 when his country joined the OECD. The visiting president also looked to the future and the prospects of European integration.

Noé van Hulst has been appointed director of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Office of Long-Term Co-operation and Policy Analysis.

How can we get back onto a path towards global prosperity and stay there in the wake of terrorist threats, war in Iraq, the SARS outbreak and corporate upheaval? The World Knowledge Forum (WKF) can help face up to political and economic risks, offering a crucial mix of business insights, survival strategies, and diagnostics of present status and future trends.

Ambassador Gun-Britt Andersson became permanent representative of Sweden to the OECD on 11 June 2003. She succeeds Anders Ferm, who had been Sweden’s ambassador to the OECD since December 1995.

Full convergence with international accounting and audit standards, better protection of minority investors, stronger enforcement of existing laws and regulations, and improved bank governance: these are some of the key recommendations in the white paper on corporate governance in Asia, published by the OECD in Tokyo in June.

The prospect of joining the EU is acting as a powerful catalyst for improving the investment climate in south-east Europe, but a number of countries need to make faster progress on economic reform.

Voluntary approaches in environmental policy are increasingly popular in a number of countries, but a new OECD report, Voluntary Approaches for Environmental Policy: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Usage in Policy Mixes, questions their environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency.

Transport is safer today – road deaths have been halved since the early 1970s. Transport is also faster and more reliable – just think of high-speed trains and the growing availability of low-cost air travel. Mobility has increased substantially in all areas of the transport sector. Despite these improvements, however, the transport sector is in crisis.

Sweden's much loved and respected foreign minister, died tragically on 11 September 2003 from wounds sustained in a brutal stabbing at a Stockholm department store the day before.

Trade capacity-building – enabling developing countries to participate fully in the multilateral trading system – is a key element of the Doha Development Agenda. Information on progress in this area is now available from an OECD/WTO joint trade capacity-building database (TCBDB).

Why should countries care about underemployed groups such as the unskilled, lone parents, women, immigrants and older workers? A harsh question, perhaps, but it is one of the key issues which will be examined by OECD Employment and Labour Ministers at their meeting of 29-30 September, under the title “Towards more and better jobs”.

17 February – John Rowan is the new ambassador for Ireland to the OECD. He comes to the organisation from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for the Human Rights Unit since 1997. He has previously served at Irish embassies in both the Middle East (Beirut and Baghdad) and the US (Washington, D.C. and San Francisco), with a 4-year career break in the private sector. While in Paris, Mr. Rowan will share his responsibilities between the OECD and UNESCO.

Further liberalisation of the world’s fish markets must first be led by effective management if the sea is to have plenty of fish for everyone. This has long been the mantra of the OECD Fisheries’ Committee and was confirmed at a press briefing by OECD fisheries experts in March to mark the launch of a new report, Liberalising Fisheries Markets: Scopes and Effects. The OECD maintains that both developed and developing countries stand to benefit from additional tariff and subsidy reductions, but cautions governments to ensure that their trade and fisheries management policies are mutually supportive.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE OECD OBSERVER, NOVEMBER 1962

The current concerns about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) serve as a stern reminder of the potential impact of infectious diseases, bringing home to us the economic as well as the human costs. Since WHO issued its first SARS alert on 12 March, 17 countries have been affected, over 100 people have died and nearly 3,000 people have been infected. The indirect effect of SARS on normal day to day life in affected areas and on the economy of Hong Kong in particular has of course been much wider.

The OECD claims many achievements, but among its worthier successes is that it holds one of the world’s oldest international standards for that most basic of economic workhorses: the trusty old tractor. Moreover, the so-called OECD Standard Codes for the Official Testing of Agricultural and Forestry Tractors celebrated their 2,000th test on 26 February 2003. The honour fell to a fourwheel-drive Agco RT115, which was examined for such safety and environmental features as roll-over protection, driver-friendly noise and power output.

The architecture of multilateral co-operation established after the Second World War is being challenged by the end of the Cold War. The world of the 20th century was shaped by two global wars and the boom-depression cycles, which foreshadowed them or were their sequel. Now the “end of history”, pronounced by Francis Fukuyama when Soviet communism collapsed, is being overtaken by the “clash of civilisations” advanced by Samuel P. Huntington as the new motor of world conflict. Turmoil and unforeseen challenges are coming to centre stage.

Israel has signed up to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, which calls for foreign investors to be treated no less favourably than domestic enterprises. The declaration also promotes voluntary standards of business conduct through the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Adherence to the declaration will enable Israel to share experiences with the 30 OECD members and other non-OECD signatories, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia.

Thérèse Pujolle has been named president of the Sahel and West Africa Club, succeeding Joan Boer. Ms Pujolle was previously Deputy Director of the Centre of Prospective Analysis at the French foreign ministry and has extensive knowledge of the development sector, as well as that of Central and Sub-Saharan Africa where she has held various positions with wide-ranging responsibilities.

The OECD Observer has won a Highly Commended certificate in the annual ALPSP/Charlesworth awards from the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers. The Observer magazine, which is published by the OECD in partnership with FT Business, was singled out in the House/Membership Journals category for its good quality design and good contents. The outright winners in this category were The Garden and Microbiology Today. The awards were presented at a reception at the Institute of Engineers in London on 19 September.

Southeast European countries have made much progress in efforts to increase private investment in the region, but the level of achievement varies significantly from country to country. That is the conclusion of a new report, Progress in Policy Reform in South East Europe: Monitoring Instruments, presented by OECD Secretary-General Donald Johnston and Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South East Europe Erhard Busek at a meeting of government representatives in Paris in November to review progress on economic reform.

Peer review lies at the heart of international co-operation in the OECD. Why is it so important and what does it achieve?

We hope we can move ahead collectively to improve the situations of those nations that urgently need development”, said president of Mexico, Mr Vincente Fox, on visit to the OECD of 15 November 2002. “We need things to improve, because where there is no growth, there are no jobs. And where there are no jobs, there is more poverty, violence, crime and political instability. The more fragile countries are already paying a heavy price for this 18-month recession.”

The OECD and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) have launched a partnership to promote competition law and policy and encourage greater competitiveness in Latin American economies.

Stronger co-operation between governments, charitable foundations and bio/pharmaceutical industries in developed and developing countries could be an effective and cost-efficient path to long-term health security in a world where disease threatens social and economic stability in many areas. That was one conclusion from an OECD conference on Biotechnology for Infectious Diseases, which brought together politicians, scientists, industry and health policy experts in Lisbon in October.

Berglind Ásgeirsdóttir of Iceland joined the OECD as one of its four deputy secretaries-general on 2 September. The three other deputy secretaries-general are Richard Hecklinger of the United States, Seiichi Kondo of Japan and Herwig Schlögl of Germany. Ms Ásgeirsdóttir came from the Icelandic social affairs ministry, where as secretary-general she led work in sectors including employment, social services, housing, migration and refugee issues, gender equality and child welfare. Until 1999 she was secretary-general of the Nordic Council, a co-operation body based in Copenhagen and serving the parliaments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, where she implemented major reforms.

Ministers from Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa were guests of honour at the OECD ministerial council in Paris on 16 May, 2002 when they met to discuss financing development in general and ways forward for OECD – NEPAD co-operation in particular. All agreed that NEPAD was a promising initiative that had to be advanced. Several areas were considered, including:

Open government is fine in theory, but does not always happen in practice. One reason is the persistent difficulty of involving civil society in developing open government systems that really work. This was just one of the messages of a two-day international roundtable on building open government in southeast Europe, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in May.

Can the public help in the fight against terrorist financing? This is the hope of the FATF as it reviews its Forty Recommendations, the global anti-money laundering standard, to bring them up to date as an effective tool in combating money laundering and terrorist financing and is inviting public comment on the proposed changes. These are focused on three key areas: customer identification, suspicious transaction reporting and proper supervision; information on the true beneficial owners of corporate entities; and the use by criminals of non-financial businesses and professions such as lawyers in laundering funds.

The divide between rich and poor remains the major potential source of structural instability and insecurity that could upset the balance of our globalised world. This was a key message that Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, Belgian secretary of state for foreign affairs, carried from the OECD Forum 2002 to the annual OECD ministerial council in Paris in May. In addition to these security issues, the Forum offered an arena for government, civil society, academia and business to debate together the questions of equity, education and growth over two days of discussion that fed into the OECD ministerial meeting.

Highlights of the communiqué issued by OECD ministers on 17 May 2002 after their two-day annual council in Paris. For the complete text, consult: www.oecd.org/

International measures to combat terrorism in transport since 11 September 2001 have tended to focus on planes and ships, but governments also need to pay attention to the terrorism risks on roads and railways, European transport ministers said. A declaration adopted by the European Council of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) at their annual meeting in Bucharest in May also said arrangements for transport security should avoid inconsistent security requirements between different types of transport.

Whether it be a tax on plastic bags or an increased levy on petrol for cars, consumer spending that damages the environment can be discouraged by taxing the goods and services on offer to raise the price. Such taxes have proved effective in OECD countries, but there are fears that higher costs to producers will reduce international competitiveness and have a possible regressive impact on domestic income distribution because poorer households will pay a higher proportion of their income than rich ones.

The untimely death of Norman Bowers this winter deprived the OECD secretariat of one of its most gifted and dedicated analysts, as well as one of its most colourful and best-liked personalities.

Korea became the 26th full member of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, a sister organisation of the OECD, at the end of March.

More than 100 students from more than 40 countries entered the first-ever OECD Forum 2002 essay competition on the topic “The state of the world in 2002: how can international co-operation make the world a better place?” The winning entries from among 114 submitted came from: Cicero R. Habito (Philippines); Christopher Tabilo Heavey (Chile); Parag Khanna (Switzerland); Sachie Kikkawa (Japan); Maite Millogo (France); Andrew Peek (United States of America); and Martina Rosakova (Slovak Republic). The winners were invited to participate in the opening panel of the OECD Forum 2002 on 13 May in Paris and extracts from the winning entries will be published shortly by the Observer.

The OECD has invited China to participate as an observer in its Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP). This is the first time China has been granted observer status on an OECD committee. The CSTP addresses a broad range of policy issues, from the financing of research and innovation and the promotion of industry-science relations to the patenting of genetic inventions and international co-operation in large scientific ventures. The OECD has been engaged in dialogue and co-operation with China since 1995.

The OECD and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have signed a joint statement of partnership priorities, identifying poverty reduction (especially in least developed countries), trade, and investment as priority areas for co-operation.

As part of its work reviewing the cross-border tax issues raised by employee stock options, the OECD has posted a draft discussion document on its website and is inviting comments from stakeholders and other interested parties before carrying out any further work based on it. The document covers a number of issues arising for governments in the administration of bilateral tax treaties connected with employee stock options, such as possible timing mismatches between taxation in the country where the employee resides and the country where s/he has worked. For each issue the document examines the application of the relevant provisions of the OECD Model Tax Convention and proposes possible interpretations and solutions.

The challenges and advantages of competition in the telecommunications sector, notably the role it can play in reducing the digital divide, were high on the agenda at an OECD conference on telecoms policy for the digital economy in Dubai in January 2002. The conference of regulators and representatives of business, civil society and international organisations from OECD and non-OECD countries, stressed the importance of introducing competition and raised awareness among participants of the need for reforms of telecom regulation.

Slovenia has been invited to adhere to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, in recognition of its success in establishing a stable and non-discriminatory business environment, and has accepted the invitation.

We live in a knowledge economy. But how can we ensure that the world reaps all its benefits, and that they are fairly shared?

Highlights of the communiqué, “Towards a Sustainable Future”, issued by OECD ministers at the end of their two-day annual meeting in Paris on May 17:

Danish environment and energy minister, Svend Auken, called for a global deal on sustainable development between North and South at the start of the second annual OECD Forum in May. This challenge kicked off two days of debate on the theme “Sustainable Development and the New Economy” which attracted more than 1 500 participants from 80 countries.

Sustainable development, the new economy and prospects for a new round of global trade talks were high on the agenda when OECD ministers gathered for their annual meeting in Paris in May.

OECD Observer online has consolidated its position in cyberspace. Since the start of 2000 it has been in the top 10 of Yahoo’s popular business and economy magazines list and has been ranked second on the more scholarly Google economic journals list.

Think of a theme, from ageing to trade, and the new OECD website will take you on a tour of the subject. The second-generation website offers thematic access to subjects and issues dealt with at the OECD as well as a new statistics portal, revamped newsroom, and improved search engine.

“An invaluable electronic resource for academic and research libraries”, is how the American Library Association described SourceOECD, the new online platform for OECD publications and statistics, in its annual government publications awards in 2001. SourceOECD is indeed linking its way on to more and more library networks.

Today, information can be gathered and diffused on a global scale, bringing with it countless opportunities, but also fear and frustration, with many people worrying that they are being left behind.

The OECD has released a set of reports and technical papers showing strong progress towards achieving international consensus on the tax treatment of electronic commerce, and is inviting public comment on several issues.

Representatives of developing countries, OECD members and the Digital Opportunities Task Force (Dot.force) set up by the G8 in July last year, took advantage of an OECD-organised conference on electronic commerce in Dubai to talk informally about how to tackle the digital divide. The conclusion of the discussions in late January was that efforts to tackle the digital divide would succeed only if closely tied to the needs of developing countries in areas such as health, education and transport.

Small firms, a critical element of economic growth and job creation, are a particularly strong force when grouped into local networks, or clusters, specialising in compatible industries. Representatives of such networks from 35 countries, many outside the OECD, came together with policymakers in Paris in January for a World Congress on Local Clusters, organised by the OECD’s Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED) and the French Delegation for Territorial Planning and Regional Action (DATAR).

Simon Upton, a former New Zealand environment minister, has been named full-time chairman of the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development, a post he has held part-time since its creation in 1998. The round table is an informal forum offering key participants in the sustainable development debate an opportunity to take stock of progress at global level and think laterally about solutions that are difficult to introduce in formal negotiating processes. It enables environment and economics ministers, representatives of the OECD, World Bank, United Nations programmes, World Trade Organisation and individuals invited from business and civil society organisations to meet twice a year to tackle some of the more intractable problems that defy negotiated solutions.

Small firms, a critical element of economic growth and job creation, are a particularly strong force when grouped into local networks, or clusters, specialising in compatible industries. Representatives of such networks from 35 countries, many outside the OECD, came together with policymakers in Paris in January for a World Congress on Local Clusters, organised by the OECD’s Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED) and the French Delegation for Territorial Planning and Regional Action (DATAR).

Simon Upton, a former New Zealand environment minister, has been named full-time chairman of the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development, a post he has held part-time since its creation in 1998. The round table is an informal forum offering key participants in the sustainable development debate an opportunity to take stock of progress at global level and think laterally about solutions that are difficult to introduce in formal negotiating processes. It enables environment and economics ministers, representatives of the OECD, World Bank, United Nations programmes, World Trade Organisation and individuals invited from business and civil society organisations to meet twice a year to tackle some of the more intractable problems that defy negotiated solutions.

It takes an intrepid entrepreneur to start a business in Europe. High social charges, taxes and complex bureaucracy are only the initial hurdles he or she will have to negotiate. Such barriers tend to discourage risk-taking and innovation; and that’s before trying to meet the challenges of competing in a high-tech, international environment.

Information and communications technology (ICT) and e-commerce have not only begun to change the shape of business, but the map of the world economy has been affected too.