The OECD welcomes Costa Rica as its 38th member country

By OECD

This is a machine translation of the original press release issued in Spanish.

Today Costa Rica formally became a member of the OECD. It is the 38th country to join in the 60-year history of the Organization.

Costa Rica completed its internal procedures for the ratification of the OECD Convention and deposited its instrument of access. With this, the accession process that began in April 2015 has been successfully concluded.

The OECD member countries formally invited Costa Rica to join the Organization in May 2020, after a five-year accession process, during which it was the subject of detailed technical studies by the 22 OECD committees and it launched far-reaching reforms to harmonize its legislation, public policies and practices with OECD standards. These reforms covered a wide range of policy areas and included a comprehensive reform of competition policy and its application, the redesign of the national statistical system, the introduction of criminal liability of legal entities for bribery abroad, and the establishment of of a register of shareholders to guarantee transparency in the tax area.

Welcoming this event, the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, stated: "We are pleased to welcome Costa Rica to the OECD family at a time when multilateralism is more relevant than ever. We were impressed with the realization that the commitment of all parties to OECD accession observed during the accession process continued through to the ratification stage, despite the pandemic. This reflects the importance of working together to define and implement better public policies, and without a doubt Costa Rica will represent a new beacon for the OECD in the region."

Costa Rica's accession will expand the number of OECD members to 38 countries. Costa Rica will be the fourth member country of the Latin America and the Caribbean region to join the Organization after Mexico, Chile and Colombia.

Media requests should be sent to Carolina Ziehl, the OECD Mexico office or the OECD Paris Media Office (+33 1 4524 9700)

Note to editors:
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), based in Paris, is an international organization that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of the world's inhabitants. It offers a forum where governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to the economic, social and governance challenges they face.

The 38 members of the OECD are: Germany, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Costa Rica, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, United States, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.