Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | |
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![]() Founder States (1961) Other Member States | |
Secretariat | ![]() |
Official languages | English French |
Membership | 38 states
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Leaders | |
• Secretary-General | Mathias Cormann |
Establishment | |
• as the OEECa | 16 April 1948 |
• reformed as the OECD | 30 September 1961 |
Website www.OECD.org | |
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of countries. Member countries of OECD all have a democratic system of government. They also accept the principle of a free economy. A country has a free economy when its government does not control the economic activities of its citizens and companies.
The OECD started 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). The Second World War had just ended three years before in 1945. Some countries of Europe came together to form OEEC to help each other re-build their industry and other things destroyed in the Second World War. Later on, some non-European countries also joined this organisation. In 1960, OEEC changed its name, and it became OECD: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris.