The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the OECD Convention (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), has sent the following message:
“On the 14th December of 1960, a group of countries sharing the same values of freedom and democracy signed the agreement that turned the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, that came into being in 1948 to administer the Marshall Plan, into the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The agreement laid the foundations for an international collaboration that, building on the experience that shaped post-war reconstruction, helped to promote development.
In recent decades, the OECD has been able to best understand and implement what a multilateral organisation can offer, based on the principle of comparison and exchange of experience in a process always based on data evidence.
Initiatives in the field of investment protection, market transparency, coordination of social and fiscal policies, fight against tax evasion, tireless action against corruption, and monitoring the effectiveness of education policies make the OECD a valuable expression of the international community’s ability to organise itself.
Today, the pandemic emergency requires the OECD to show the same attitude it showed in its early years. Just as sixty years ago, the OECD is faced with the challenge of identifying fundamental choices for our societies that will enable us to get back on the path of progress, mending the serious social wounds we are witnessing.
Only a collective effort, only effective multilateralism, will enable the international community to overcome this emergency and face global challenges, from climate change, to migration flows, to digitalisation and the more topical issue of building resilient societies.
The aim of shaping an up-to-date development model capable of transforming challenges into opportunities requires a broad, common response that embraces society as a whole.
Italy is proud to have contributed over the decades to the work of the OECD, with its support and the contribution of its many compatriots who are involved in its activities on a daily basis, and attributes to the Organisation a role capable of influencing the evolution of the current international situation”.
