Estonia wishes to join OECD as soon as possible - formin

11.02.2008

TALLINN, Feb 11, BNS - Speaking in a meeting with Angel Gurria, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that Estonia wants to accede to the OECD as quickly as possible.

"Our goal is to achieve membership as quickly as possible," Paet said during the meeting in Tallinn on Monday that focused on the next round of enlargement of the OECD and Estonia's accession negotiations.

Gurria said that Estonia's position was strong and expressed the hope that the process of accession will be smooth.

Last year Estonia, Israel, Slovenia, Chile and Russia were invited to accede to the OECD. In December the OECD Council endorsed the action plan of Estonia's accession.

Gurria also met with speaker of the Estonian parliament Ene Ergma, with whom Estonia's future contribution to the organization was talked about.

Gurria expressed confidence that Estonia's positions as regards education, information technology and research and development will bring fresh thinking into the organization.

Gurria voiced appreciation of the Estonian e-elections, e-government and e-Tax Board systems, describing them as very important achievements.

Ergma expressed the hope that as a member of the OECD Estonia will have good access to very important information and together with that to better opportunities for the development of education, which in its turn will help to increase the role of businesses in sustainable research and development activity.

OECD is an organization of developed countries established by 19 countries on September 30, 1961 and it currently has 30 member countries.

The membership criteria are open market economy, democratic pluralism and respect for human rights.

Gurria has headed OECD since 1 June 2006. In 1998-2000 he was Mexico's minister of finance and in 1994-1998 of foreign affairs.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee