Minister of Finance: Israel will attempt to join OECD within a year

Hirchson began conducting a series of meetings with other officials and business people at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference in Singapore early last week
 
Minister of Finance Abraham Hirchson and Ministry of Finance director general Dr. Joseph Bachar met last week in Singapore with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) officials responsible for the preparation of reports on candidate countries for membership of the organization.
 
At the end of the meeting Hirchson noted that Israel has been trying to join the OECD for years and added "I hope that within a year we will join the OECD".
 
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is a unique forum where the governments of 30 market democracies work together to address the economic, social and governance challenges of globalization as well as to exploit its opportunities.
 
The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and co-ordinate domestic and international policies.
 
Hirchson began conducting a series of meetings with other officials and business people at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference in Singapore early last week.
 
The governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer was quoted earlier this year saying that talks were proceeding on full Israeli membership of the OECD.
 
Fischer stressed however that if Israel does join the OECD, this will oblige it, from the 2007 budget onwards, to abide by stricter international standards, particularly in the measurement of the fiscal deficit, in fiscal targets, and the reduction of the national debt. He said that, by OECD standards, the 2005 fiscal deficit was 4. 5% of GDP, while the Ministry of Finance Accountant General had reported a deficit of only 1.94% of GDP.