OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization 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.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Logo
Founder States (1961)      Other Member States
Secretariat	Paris, France
Official languages	English French
Membership	37 states Australia Austria Belgium Canada Chile Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom United States
Leaders
• Secretary-General	José Ángel Gurría
Establishment
• as the OEECa	16 April 1948
• reformed as the OECD	30 September 1961
Website www.OECD.org
Organisation for European Economic Co-operation.

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 organization. In 1960, OEEC changed its name, and it became OECD: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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

OECD has thirty-six member countries, of which 19 became members in 1961. These countries are:

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Canada
4. Denmark
5. France
6. Germany
7. Greece
8. Iceland
9. Ireland
10. Luxembourg
11. Netherlands
12. Norway
13. Portugal
14. Spain
15. Sweden
16. Switzerland
17. Turkey
18. United Kingdom
19. United States

17 countries joined OECD after 1961. The names of these countries (with the year they joined in brackets), are:

1. Italy (1962)
2. Japan (1964)
3. Finland (1969)
4. Australia (1971)
5. New Zealand (1973)
6. Mexico (1994)
7. Czechia (1995)
8. Hungary (1996)
9. South Korea (1996)
10. Poland(1996)
11. Slovakia (2000)
12. Chile (2010)
13. Estonia (2010)
14. Israel (2010)
15. Slovenia (2010)
16. Latvia (2016)
17. Lithuania (2018)
18. Jordan (2019)

Colombia is set to become the 38th member.

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