News

Costa Rica is close to becoming the 28th member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE by its acronym in Spanish). On May 15, the countries that make up this organization unanimously agreed to invite Costa Rica to join it, thus culminating a path that began in 2015 and included important reforms in domestic legislation, as well as having successfully approved the detailed technical reviews of 22 OCDE Committees.

On May 31st, Costa Rica signed the accession protocol which must then be signed by the members of the organization so that it can finally be approved by the Legislative Assembly and deposited with the French authorities.

The experts list 4 main advantages of being a member of the OCDE:

1. Ongoing assessment: The OCDE monitors its members’ economic data and provides them with reliable and comparable statistics to set targets and make progress.
2. Development reporting: the OCDE serves as a forum for discussion and analysis of different issues, while producing specific reports as requested by countries.
3. Unbiased advice: the OCDE bases its suggestions on evidence and keeps out of political debates.
4. A quality label for foreign investment: by having to meet public policy standards to become a member, these standards are improved. This increases the confidence of foreign investors.

It is expected that the adoption of the international guidelines issued by the OCDE will be reflected in the medium term, improving the country’s economic capacity.

Carlos Gómez Fonseca
Partner
García & Bodán
Costa Rica