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52-551: According to the OECD , Germany’s total official development assistance (ODA) (USD 35 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2022 due to an increase in in-donor refugee costs and increased contributions to international organisations. It represented 0.83% of gross national income (GNI). KfW is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany (80 percent) and the States of Germany (20 percent). It

104-693: A country . The OECD also created agencies such as the OECD Development Centre (1961), International Energy Agency (IEA, 1974), and Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering . The aims of the OECD are stated in Article 1 of the Convention as: Unlike the United Nations' "Organizations," OECD uses the spelling "Organisation" with an "s" in its name, together with a hyphenated "Co-operation". Following

156-631: A cumbersome task. Following several (occasionally unruly) meetings at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, which began in January 1960, a resolution was reached to create a body that would not only solve European and Atlantic economic issues, but also devise policies that could assist less developed countries. This reconstituted organisation would bring the US and Canada, who were already OEEC observers, on board as full members, and

208-646: A discussion on a broad spectrum of thematic issues relevant to the OECD charter, member countries, and non-member countries. Noteworthy meetings include: Exchanges between OECD governments benefit from the information, analysis, and preparation of the OECD Secretariat. The secretariat collects data, monitors trends, and analyses and forecasts economic developments. Under the direction and guidance of member governments, it also researches social changes or evolving patterns in trade, environment, education, agriculture, technology, taxation and other areas. The secretariat

260-494: A framework for negotiations aimed at setting up a European Free Trade Area , to bring the EEC's Inner Six and other OEEC members together on a multilateral basis. In 1958, a European Nuclear Energy Agency was set up in response to Euratom. By this time, some leading countries felt that the OEEC had outlived its purpose but could be adapted to fulfil a more global mission, which proved to be

312-659: A member of the Organisation through the letter addressed by Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta to OECD Secretary-General José Ángel Gurría . In September 2012, the government of Bulgaria confirmed it would apply for membership before the OECD Secretariat. The OECD established a working group headed by ambassador Seiichiro Noboru to work out a plan for the enlargement with non-members. The working group defined four criteria that must be fulfilled: "like-mindedness", "significant player", "mutual benefit" and "global considerations." The working group's recommendations were presented at

364-461: A member on 28 April 2020. On 15 May 2020, the OECD decided to extend a formal invitation for Costa Rica to join the OECD, which joined as a member on 25 May 2021. Other countries that have expressed interest in OECD membership are Argentina , Brazil , Croatia , Malaysia and Peru . In January 2022, the OECD reported that membership talks were underway with Argentina , Brazil , Bulgaria , Croatia , Peru and Romania . In March 2022,

416-522: A membership option for these countries. As a result of this, Poland , Hungary , the Czech Republic and Slovakia , as well as South Korea and Mexico , became members of the OECD between 1996 and 2000. East Germany joined on 3 October 1990 through reunification with West Germany. In the 1990s, several European countries, now members of the European Union, expressed their willingness to join

468-406: A very high Human Development Index . As of 2024 their collective population is 1.38 billion people with an average life expectancy of 80 years and a median age of 40, against a global average of 30. As of 2017 , OECD Member countries collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP ( USD 49.6 trillion) and 42.8% of global GDP ( Int$ 54.2 trillion) at purchasing power parity . The OECD

520-691: Is KfW IPEX-Bank. KfW IPEX-Bank is active in project finance and corporate finance related to German or European exports. It also promotes foreign investments in Germany. Unlike KfW, it competes directly with commercial banks. Therefore, and in response to concerns voiced by the European Commission concerning unfair competition, KfW IPEX-Bank has become legally and financially independent in 2008. KfW IPEX-Bank's main sectors of activity are ports, airports, toll roads, bridges and tunnels, railways, ships, planes, telecommunications, energy, and manufacturing. In 2014

572-536: Is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade . It is a forum whose member countries describe themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy , providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices, and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. The majority of OECD members are generally regarded as developed countries , with high-income economies , and

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624-573: Is an official United Nations observer . OECD nations have strong social security systems ; their average social welfare spending stood at roughly 21% of GDP. The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris , France, which housed its predecessor organization, the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. The OECD is funded by contributions from member countries at varying rates and

676-662: Is led by a five-member executive board headed by CEO Stefan Wintels  [ de ] , which in turn reports to a 37   member Board of Supervisory Directors. The chair and deputy chair of the Board of Supervisory Directors are the German Federal Ministers of Finance and of Economic Affairs , with the positions alternating annually between them. Currently, the chairman is Christian Lindner , Federal Minister of Finance . In 2009, Caisse des Dépots , Cassa Depositi e Prestiti , KfW and European Investment Bank founded

728-677: Is organised in directorates: The head of the OECD Secretariat and chair of the OECD Council is the Secretary-General. Secretary-General selections are made by consensus , meaning all member states must agree on a candidate. Representatives of member and observer countries meet in specialised committees on specific policy areas, such as economics, trade, science, employment, education, development assistance or financial markets. There are about 200 committees, working groups and expert groups. Committees discuss policies and review progress in

780-547: Is recognised as a highly influential publisher of mostly economic data through publications as well as annual evaluations and rankings of member countries. The OECD is the successor organization to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) , established in April 1948 among the European recipients of Marshall Plan aid for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II . Only Western European states were members of

832-900: The German Investment Corporation (DEG), and one of the group's smaller business units, KfW Development Bank, are exclusively active in the international arena, each within their particular business areas. KfW Förderbank (KfW promotional Bank), the largest business unit of the group, committed € 47.6 billion in 2014, mostly for housing and environmental protection in Germany. It is especially active in promoting energy-efficient housing for owner-occupied houses as well as for landlords, both for new houses and refurbishments. Its energy efficiency standards for houses (KfW-60 and KfW-40) have become accepted standards in Germany. Concerning environmental protection, it promotes, among others, photovoltaic energy ( solar cells ) which has in turn received massive indirect subsidies through feed-in tariffs under

884-516: The Long-Term Investors Club . KfW banking group covers over 90% of its borrowing needs in the capital markets , mainly through bonds that are guaranteed by the federal government. This allows KfW to raise funds at advantageous conditions. Its exemption from having to pay corporate taxes due to its legal status as a public agency and unremunerated equity provided by its public shareholders allow KfW to provide loans for purposes prescribed by

936-468: The Renewable Energy Law of 2000. It also invests in municipal infrastructure such as public transport and sanitation through a sub-unit called KfW Kommunalbank (KfW municipal bank). More recently (since 2006), it has also engaged in education where it provides student loans. KfW Mittelstandsbank (which roughly translates as KfW small and medium enterprises bank), the second largest business unit of

988-660: The Revolutions of 1989 , the OECD began assisting countries in and Eastern Europe (especially the Visegrád Group ) to prepare market economy reforms. In 1990, the Centre for Co-operation with European Economies in Transition (now succeeded by the Centre for Cooperation with Non-Members) was established, and in 1991, the programme, "Partners in Transition", was launched to offer a partnership to Czechoslovakia , Hungary and Poland, including

1040-693: The 1960s to the end of the 1990s was also described in the memoirs titled “the Bank of Japan and the OECD: Recollections and Reflections”, written in Japanese by Kumiharu Shigehara and published in December 2019. In his letter of 5 February 2019, Donald Johnston, OECD Secretary-General (1996-2006), noted that Shigehara's "book is very important for the OECD where there is little living institutional memory". The English edition of Shigehara's memoirs titled The Bank of Japan,

1092-606: The Declaration. The OECD publishes books, reports, statistics, working papers, and reference materials. All titles and databases published since 1998 can be accessed via OECD iLibrary . The OECD Library & Archives collection dates from 1947, including records from the Committee for European Economic Co-operation (CEEC) and the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), predecessors of today's OECD. External researchers can consult OECD publications and archival material on

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1144-504: The G20. It is not certain when the proposals will be implemented. All the major economies agreed to pass national laws that would require corporations to pay at least 15% income tax in the countries they operate. This new policy would end the practice of locating world headquarters in small countries with very low taxation rates. Governments hope to recoup some of the lost revenue, estimated at $ 100 billion to $ 240 billion each year. The new system

1196-476: The German state, KfW holds shares in a variety of corporations, including Deutsche Post , Deutsche Telekom , Commerzbank , Lufthansa , and CureVac . In 2013, KfW agreed to help establish a Portuguese financial institution to foster economic growth and boost job creation in the country. The magazine Global Finance rated KfW as the safest bank in the world in its "World's 50 Safest Banks 2014" rating. The rating

1248-592: The KfW law at lower rates than commercial banks. KfW is not allowed to compete with commercial banks, but it facilitates their business in areas within its mandate. KfW banking group has three business units with distinct functions, as well as several subsidiaries. Lending by KfW group's two main business units, accounting for more than 90% of total lending, is in Germany and, to a limited extent, in other European countries. However, its largest subsidiary, KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, predominantly lends internationally. A smaller subsidiary,

1300-459: The OECD Convention after September 1961, but are nevertheless considered founding members. The official founding members are the following: Japan became a member in 1964, and over the following decade, Finland , Australia , and New Zealand also joined the organisation. Yugoslavia had observer status in the organisation, starting with the establishment of the OECD, until its dissolution as

1352-561: The OECD Ministerial Council Meeting on 13 May 2004, and on 16 May 2007, the OECD Ministerial Council decided to open accession discussions with Chile , Estonia , Israel , Russia , and Slovenia , and to strengthen cooperation with Brazil , China , India , Indonesia , and South Africa through a process of enhanced engagement. Chile, Slovenia, Israel, and Estonia all became members in 2010. In March 2014,

1404-536: The OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations, a Model Tax Convention and country-by-country reporting rules. The OECD publishes and updates a model tax convention that serves as a template for allocating taxation rights between countries. This model is accompanied by a set of commentaries that reflect OECD-level interpretation of the content of the model convention provisions. In general, this model allocates

1456-469: The OECD announced that it "has transitioned to [an] open-access information model" and that Creative Commons CC‑BY‑4.0 attribution licenses will be used on all data and publications. There are 15 working papers series published by the various directorates of the OECD Secretariat. They are available on iLibrary, as well as on many specialised portals. The OECD is responsible for the OECD Guidelines for

1508-415: The OECD halted membership talks with Russia in response to its role in the 2014 Annexation of Crimea . In 2013, the OECD decided to open membership talks with Colombia and Latvia . In 2015, the Organisation opened talks with Costa Rica and Lithuania . Latvia became a member on 1 July 2016, and Lithuania soon followed on 5 July 2018. Colombia signed the accession agreement on 30 May 2018 and became

1560-468: The OECD premises by appointment. The OECD releases about 600 books and over 400 papers yearly on topics spanning public policy. The publications are updated to the OECD iLibrary. Most books are published in English and French. The OECD flagship titles include: All OECD books are available on the OECD iLibrary, the online bookshop or OECD Library & Archives. OECD Observer , an award-winning magazine,

1612-504: The OECD suspended the participation of Russia and Belarus due to the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . In June 2022, during the annual OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, the Roadmaps for the Accession to the OECD Convention for Brazil , Bulgaria , Croatia , Peru and Romania were adopted. The OECD sets the rules governing international taxation for multinationals through

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1664-566: The OECD, and Beyond was published by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2024. The OECD is known as a statistical agency , as it publishes comparable statistics on numerous subjects. In July 2014, the OECD publicly released its main statistical databases through the OECD Data Portal, an online platform that allows visitors to create custom charts based on official OECD indicators. OECD statistics are available in several forms: In July 2024,

1716-513: The OEEC would set to work straight away on convincing Japan to join the organisation. The Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was signed on 14 December 1960, and the OECD officially superseded the OEEC in September 1961, consisting of the European founder countries of the OEEC, with the additions of the United States and Canada. Three countries, (Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Italy)—all OEEC members—ratified

1768-602: The OEEC, whose primary function was the allocation of American aid. Its Secretaries-General were the Frenchmen Robert Marjolin (1948–1955) and René Sergent (1955–1960). It was headquartered in the Château de la Muette in Paris. Following the end of Marshall aid in 1952, the OEEC focused on economic issues. Its coordinating role was challenged after the 1957 Rome Treaties establishing the European Economic Community and Euratom . The OEEC provided

1820-536: The Organisation. In 1995, Cyprus applied for membership, but according to the Cypriot government, it was vetoed by Turkey . In 1996, Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania signed a Joint Declaration expressing willingness to become members of the OECD, and Slovenia also applied for membership that same year. In 2005, Malta applied to join the Organisation. The EU is lobbying for the admission of all EU member states . Romania reaffirmed in 2012 its intention to become

1872-608: The Testing of Chemicals , a continuously updated document that is a de facto standard (i.e., soft law). It published the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030 in March 2008, which argues that tackling key environmental problems—including climate change , biodiversity loss , water scarcity , and the health impacts of pollution —is both achievable and affordable. In 2020, the inaugural University Press Redux Sustainability Award

1924-673: The balance sheet total of KfW IPEX-Bank amounted to € 26.3 billion. Another subsidiary of KfW banking group, the German Investment Corporation (DEG), takes minority equity stakes and provides loans to private companies investing in developing countries. It pursues a business model broadly similar to that of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group . Its main sectors of activity are banking, agro-business , renewable energy, telecommunications and manufacturing. It lent 1.2 billion in 2008. On behalf of

1976-490: The capital market. KfW also provides loans to European commercial banks to help them finance SMEs, housing and infrastructure (so-called global loans). KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW Development Bank) provides financing to governments, public enterprises and commercial banks engaged in microfinance and SME promotion in developing countries. It does so through loans close to market terms using its own resources ("promotional loans"), soft loans that blend KfW resources with support from

2028-435: The cost borne by the member countries, such as sending their officials to OECD meetings and maintaining permanent delegations, is equivalent to the cost of running the secretariat. This ratio is unique among inter-governmental organisations. In other words, the OECD is more a persistent forum or network of officials and experts than an administration. The OECD regularly holds minister-level meetings and forums as platforms for

2080-437: The federal government's aid budget ("development loans"), as well as highly subsidized loans and grants, the latter two coming entirely from the federal aid budget. Different country groups are offered different financing conditions depending mainly on their per capita income. All these financing instruments are part of what is officially called development cooperation and is often also called " development aid ". In German aid,

2132-548: The first time in Kumiharu Shigehara, “Multilateral Surveillance: What the OECD can offer?” (the 1996 Global Finance Lecture, the University of Birmingham, 1996; OECD publication, Paris, 1996) at a time when Shigehara was OECD Chief Economist and Head of Economics Department (1992–1997); he was subsequently OECD Deputy Secretary-General (1997–1999). It was also discussed in: The history of OECD multilateral surveillance from

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2184-429: The given policy area. OECD has a number of specialised bodies: OECD decisions are made through voting, which requires unanimity among all of those voting. Each member country has one vote. However, dissenting members which do not wish to block a decision but merely to signal their disapproval can abstain from voting. 22 of the OECD member countries are also EU member states. As of May 2021 there are 38 members of

2236-469: The group, provides assistance to German small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including individual entrepreneurs and start-ups. In addition to loans it also provides equity and mezzanine financing . Its financing totaled €20.4 billion in 2015. KfW has been very active in securitization before this market collapsed during the subprime mortgage crisis . Through securitization it helped commercial banks to transfer risks from their housing and SME portfolios to

2288-545: The other (such as between OECD and non-OECD pairings). Additionally, the OECD has published and updated the Transfer Pricing Guidelines since 1995. The Transfer Pricing Guidelines serve as a template for the profit allocation of inter-company transactions to countries. The latest version, of July 2017, incorporates the approved Actions developed under the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project initiated by

2340-423: The primary right to tax to the country from which capital investment originates (i.e., the home, or resident country) rather than the country in which the investment is made (the host, or source country). As a result, it is most effective between two countries with reciprocal investment flows (such as among the OECD member countries), but can be unbalanced when one of the signatory countries is economically weaker than

2392-516: The time. The bank subsequently fired two board members over the transfer. Due to a glitch in the bank's information technology, KfW again accidentally transferred 7.6 billion euros ($ 8.2 billion) to four other banks in February 2017 but got the money back, incurring costs of 25,000 euros. OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ; French : Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, OCDE )

2444-541: The work of KfW Development Bank is called "financial cooperation" which is complemented by "technical cooperation" by GIZ and other public agencies. The main sectors of financial cooperation are water supply and sanitation, renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as the development of the financial sector. KfW Development Bank also works, among other sectors, in health, education, agriculture, forestry, solid waste management. It provided €7.4 billion in loans and grants in 2014. The largest subsidiary of KfW banking group

2496-414: Was based on long-term foreign currency ratings from Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor's and the long-term bank deposit ratings from Moody's Investors Service . In September 2008, as investors were scrambling to get their funds out of Lehman Brothers , KfW accidentally wired €320 million ($ 426 million) to Lehman; Germany's largest circulation newspaper, Bild , called KfW "Germany's Dumbest Bank" at

2548-720: Was given to OECD by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and Cambridge University Press . The award recognized the development of the SDG Pathfinder, an open-access digital discovery tool for finding content and data relating to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The OECD's structure consists of three main elements: Delegates from the member countries attend committee and other meetings. Former Deputy Secretary-General Pierre Vinde  [ sv ] estimated in 1997 that

2600-454: Was introduced in Q2 2013. The OECD Observer was last issued in the fourth quarter of 2019, with a double edition looking ahead at artificial intelligence, and a cover leading on why statistical offices should hire a comedian. The OECD Observer website closed in the first quarter of 2021; the archive can be consulted at www.oecd.org. The OECD's multilateral surveillance was systematically reviewed for

2652-471: Was launched in 1962. The magazine appeared six times a year until 2010, and became quarterly in 2011 with the introduction of the OECD Yearbook , launched for the 50th anniversary of the organisation. The online and mobile editions contained news, analysis, reviews, commentaries and data on global economic, social and environmental challenges and listings of the latest OECD books. An OECD Observer Crossword

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2704-735: Was promoted by the Biden Administration in the United States and the OECD. Secretary-General Mathias Cormann of the OECD said, "This historic package will ensure that large multinational companies pay their fair share of tax everywhere." The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises are a set of legally non-binding guidelines attached as an annex to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. They are recommendations providing principles and standards for responsible business conduct for multinational corporations operating in or from countries adhering to

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