The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development announced that its member countries will launch accession talks with five prospective new members.

OECD countries have given a green light for the start of accession talks with Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia. The move, the organization says, signals a new stage in its drive to broaden and deepen its involvement with emerging new players in the global economy.

The approval of so-called “road maps” setting a negotiating framework for each of the five countries marks the formal launch of a process agreed at an OECD ministerial meeting in Paris last May. In parallel, OECD has announced plans to engage more closely with other significant economies, notably Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

The twin-track process is designed to reinforce OECD’s role as a hub for dialogue on global issues involving both OECD and non-OECD countries, OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría said. OECD’s working methods are based on the principle of peer review and evidence-based discussion of policy options, drawing on the experiences of member countries. “Our goal is to help countries respond successfully to the challenges and opportunities of a global economy.’’

“By extending our membership and deepening our relations with other big players in the world economy, we are broadening our perspectives and consolidating our role as a source of policy solutions,” Gurría added. “Governments must work together to tackle issues like innovation and intellectual property rights, poverty and inequality, climate change and international migration. OECD provides a forum for doing that.”

The OECD defines its mission as being to help make the world economy work effectively and efficiently. It currently has 30 members, the most recent entrant being the Slovak Republic in 2000.

Accession negotiations will take place individually between the candidate countries and the OECD committees that handle the substantive aspects of the organisation’s work. These bring together senior officials from national capitals to discuss policy in areas ranging from farming to financial affairs and from taxation to trade.

OECD deputy secretary-general Thelma Askey will visit each of the five countries over the next few weeks to set the accession talks in motion. Once OECD committees are satisfied that a candidate country fulfils their requirements for membership, a final decision on whether to issue an invitation for membership will be taken by the governing council of ambassadors. Decisions on membership will have to be taken on a basis of consensus.

http://www.oecd.org/membershiptalks