By Caribbean News Global
BERLIN, Germany – Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurría has announced to the OECD Council that he will not be seeking an additional mandate to lead the Organisation.
“During the 14 years that I have been leading the OECD, I have strived to make it more visible, more relevant, more impactful, more efficient. All to better serve our Members, first and foremost, as well as our Partner countries,” he explained in a statement. “In the context of the worst pandemic since the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918 and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the strategy we defined with Members holds true.
“Our quest for a new narrative of growth, which puts people at the centre; our efforts to continue building a rules-based international economy and society, most recently on international taxation and Artificial Intelligence; our timely policy advice and support to countries when they are pursuing reforms; our openness to new thinking and our push to have integrated, multidisciplinary views, and to be at the forefront of policy thinking and advice; our interactions at the highest political levels, including with the most influential global fora, and our support to global agendas, like climate or the SDGs; our enlargement process and our close collaboration with partners; our engagement with different stakeholders; all speak of a new, different, better OECD,” he said.
The COVID-19 crisis has instilled in us a renewed sense of duty. I will dedicate the year ahead to ensure meaningful contributions from the OECD to this and other multilateral agendas.
As decided by the OECD Council in 2016, the selection process is launched on August 1, 2020. OECD Member countries will be asked to put forward candidates by the end of October 2020, following which there will be interviews and consultations which will culminate by the end of February 2021. The next secretary-general shall be chosen by the OECD Member countries for a five-year term beginning June 1, 2021.
“As the process for the selection of the next secretary-general starts, I very much hope that countries will consider candidates that will preserve and further advance the mission, the vision, and the ambition that we, Members and the secretariat, have built together over the last fourteen years, and which has made the OECD the place to design, develop and deliver better policies for better lives,” secretary-general Gurría said.
