Peru’s participation in the Country Program is a quick access to include the country in the OECD.

Carlos Anderson, president of the National Centre of Strategic Planning (Ceplan), estimated that Peru might receive a formal invitation to become part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2016.

“There are no certain deadlines, as there are diverse experiences on this matter. It took Chile ten years to become a member of OECD, while for Colombia it was three years. We hope to beat that record and achieve it by 2016, is the expectation we have right now”, said Anderson.

He pointed out that, in order to achieve that goal every Peruvian government entity must work together, leaded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM), as well as of the Foreign Relationships Ministry.

Anderson stated that for that reason the work started to implement the Country Program of the OECD is very important. This is a fundamental requisite to become part of the organization, which has nowadays 34 countries as members.

“With the invitation to the program we begin our participation in a sort of World Cup to be played in Paris, where OECD is established. To be included, there are requisites to fulfil and Peru is going there” he said.

The countries which belong to the organization share a high level of human development, a strong commitment towards democracy and a market economy that consolidates them in an international level.

“The participation in the Country Program is a quick path to achieve the integration of Peru to the OECD, known as the club of developed countries”, said Anderson.

The Country Program was created as a recognition towards the will of some countries to become close to the public policies standards established by the OECD and its better practices. They are designed to help a limited number of countries adopt such standards through a direct collaboration with their reform agendas.

In the Peruvian case, it shall deepen reforms already started on matters related to priority public policies, such as improvements on productivity levels, productivity diversification and innovation, institutionalization and modernization of the State.

Ceplan published the report Peru 2012: OECD country, a document that analyses the main economic, social and institutional actions the country must implement before 2012, in order to be admitted as a member of OECD and aim to become a fully developed country in medium term

Column originally published by Gestion.pe