On June 24, Colombian Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez and the OECD Chief of Staff Gabriela Ramos, met to officially launch the initiative to fulfill Colombia’s post-accession commitments to the Organization. Work will be carried out in seven key sectors for the economy: trade, environment, fisheries, chemicals, employment and labour issues, regulatory policy and public governance. During the meeting, action plans lasting anything between two to eight years were agreed as was the roadmap for the current phase.

“Fulfilling these commitments is something we need to develop with a timetable, which is why it is so important to coordinate the Vice Presidency and National Planning with all the sectoral ministries on tax matters, competition rules, consumer protection, regional development, digital economy, statistics issues, anti-bribery, integrity, transparency, corruption prevention, effective sanctions, corporate governance, financial markets and science, technology and innovation policy,” said Ramírez. 

The OECD officials laid out the goals and guidelines for fulfilling the commitments, including priority areas such as the 10-year plan for justice, and the inclusion of Colombian workers into the formal employment sector. The meeting was attended by the Ministers of Trade, Justice, Interior, Agriculture and Environment, the Director of the National Planning Department (DNP) and the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), as well as other senior government officials and the OECD directors responsible for post-accession committees.