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El Salvador becomes the 53rd member of the OECD Development Centre

 

El Salvador becomes the 53rd member of the OECD Development Centre


Paris, 13 February 2019 - El Salvador’s entry into the OECD Development Centre marks a significant stride in support of the country’s inclusive growth and reform agenda. It also strengthens the Centre’s global representativeness and institutional cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean.

El Salvador joins a diverse group of 52 OECD and non-OECD countries from all world regions, contributing to an expanding membership of the Development Centre.

The Development Centre will support El Salvador in its ongoing efforts to achieve stronger and more inclusive development, in particular offering comparative perspectives on the country’s structural trends and governance and sharing policy experiences for sustainable economic growth and social inclusion.

El Salvador has made socioeconomic progress since the beginning of the century and shows positive signs of improvement in its macroeconomic framework. Progress in social development includes health and education. The country’s infant mortality rate (12.5 per 1 000 live births) is below the Latin America and Caribbean average (14.7). In addition, life expectancy at birth has increased to 73.5 from 64.0 in 1990. The country’s net secondary school enrolment rate also improved between 2000-16 from 48.2% to 64.3%. Poverty decreased from 22.8% in 2005 to 10.3% in 2016. Since 2011, the annual average GDP growth rate has remained above 2%. However, some structural weaknesses and long-standing vulnerabilities reduce the country’s ability to upgrade its economic structure and progress towards higher levels of well-being and sustainable development.

“As a member of the Development Centre, El Salvador will benefit from opportunities for knowledge sharing and policy dialogue with other member countries” stated Manuel Escudero, the Chair of the OECD Development Centre Governing Board and Ambassador of Spain to the OECD. “These opportunities will help the government identify and learn from relevant experiences as it designs and implements its own reform agenda”, he added.

Alongside eleven other Members from Latin America and the Caribbean, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, El Salvador will leverage the Centre’s key activities and strengthen ties with policy makers throughout the region – and beyond – to address some of its more pressing needs including boosting productivity, inclusiveness and promoting stronger institutions.

Mario Pezzini, OECD Development Centre Director and Special Advisor to the OECD Secretary General on Development, welcomed El Salvador’s entry as an “opportunity to assist the country in identifying policy priorities and defining a development strategy to address issues such as youth employment, digital and production transformation, domestic resource mobilisation, migration, regional integration and international cooperation”.

The Development Centre has been conducting analyses of the El Salvadorian economy for several years, notably in the framework of the Latin American Economic Outlook 2018 - Rethinking Institutions for Development, Tax Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Taxing Wages in Latin America and the Caribbean. The country is also included in the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) and the Gender, Institutions and Development Database. El Salvador has participated in the EU-OECD Youth Inclusion Project 2014-2017, which involved eight other developing and emerging economies. More recently, El Salvador has requested the Development Centre to implement a Multi-Dimensional Country Review (MDCR).

In addition to longstanding fruitful relations with the Development Centre, El Salvador enjoys cooperation with various OECD initiatives. El Salvador is a member of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information since 2011. It has also adhered to the Declaration on Strengthening SMEs and Entrepreneurship for Productivity and Inclusive Growth in 2018. El Salvador is also part of the Steering Group of the OECD Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Programme and joined the other participating countries in welcoming the Programme’s OECD LACRP Action Plan: Integrity for Good Governance in LAC.


For more information on the OECD Development Centre, visit www.oecd.org/dev.

Media enquiries should be directed to Bochra Kriout (Bochra.Kriout@oecd.org; +33-1 45 24 82 96) at the OECD Development Centre Press Office.

 

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