Excerpts from Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann to the Meeting of the OECD Council at Ministerial Level (MCM) - 1 June 2021

01/06/2021 -

'The OECD is a force for good in the world. All of us have a collective responsibility to use it to its full potential.'

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'Our core purpose, under our Convention, is to preserve individual liberty and to increase the economic and social well-being of our people.'

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'Our essential mission of the past - to promote stronger, cleaner, fairer economic growth and to raise employment and living standards - remains the critically important mission for the future.'

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'We need to continue to overcome the immediate health challenge, including by pursuing an all-out effort to reach the entire world population with vaccines. This is not just an act of benevolence from advanced economies. It is about sustained protection virus for all of us and about giving ourselves the best chance of a sustained recovery.'

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'Market-based economic principles work. Global competition at its best is a powerful engine for progress, innovation and an improvement in living standards.

'Yes, competition can also be uncomfortable. It can lead to social disruption, which, collectively, we need to better manage. We need effective rules to protect our values and ensure a level playing field. We need to ensure access to high quality education, upskilling and reskilling to ensure everyone can participate and benefit. We need the necessary social supports for those who struggle.

'But competition is - and should be - unavoidable. Protecting ourselves from competition and innovation does not stop it from happening elsewhere - it just means that, over time, those who find themselves behind those protective walls fall further and further behind.'

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'Core to our economic mission and that of all governments is the preservation, restoration and creation of as many new jobs as possible.

'Most jobs will be created by the private sector, by viable, successful and growing businesses. SMEs in particular will be key to the jobs growth our economies need. We need to ensure our policy settings facilitate, encourage and incentivise that post-COVID recovery and investment.'

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'More and more countries are committing to net-zero emissions as soon as possible and by no later than 2050. The challenge is how to turn those commitments into outcomes and to achieve our objective in a cost-effective, economically responsible and publicly supported way that will not leave people behind. Over the next 100 days, we need to operationalise the OECD's International Programme for Action on Climate (IPAC).'

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'The digital transformation of our economies has accelerated during the COVID pandemic. To ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate and benefit … risks and challenges will need to be well managed - from the transitional supports and skills development requirements related to the future of work, to cyber security, privacy and the tax policy implications of the digitalisation of an increasingly globalised economy.'

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'It is very important we continue to lead the global fight against tax evasion and multinational tax avoidance and to ensure that digital businesses and all large businesses pay their fair share.

'We need to complete this work, including by facilitating agreement on an appropriate minimum level of global taxation and by minimising the profit shifting that has accompanied the digitalisation of our globalised economy.'

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'Great power competition will shape the world order in the coming decades. The OECD must work together to demonstrate how our democratic and market based economic values make us politically, socially and economically stronger.'

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'Our global relations strategy moving forward must include a renewed focus on our engagement with the Asia-Pacific region, including the ASEAN countries and China. Given the central role of this region in driving global economic and population growth, energy demand, innovation and more, it is a critical part of seeking effective solutions to global challenges.'

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'We must also continue to strengthen our development co-operation. Low-income countries need our co-operation more than ever - to ensure access to vaccinations, to trade, to financing to help them deal with the climate challenge.'

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'Together we can continue to be stronger than the sum of our parts. I will give the Organisation, its members and staff my absolute best.'

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Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

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