Newly-Elected OECD Secretary-General Gurria: "The OECD Has to Become The Hub of Globalization for The Benefit of Everybody"
Sec. Gen. Angel Gurria
Question: Dr. Angel Gurria, Secretary- General of OECD, would you tell me the purpose of your visit to Korea? Answer: There are several purposes. The first is I want to make an official visit to the President, ministers, private sector, academic, universities etc. to introduce myself for the first time as the Secretary-General of OECD. Second, we delivered a Korean environmental policy review by the OECD. We do environmental policy reviews and sector policy reviews of all the countries, so this was an opportunity to deliver a review personally and present it to the minister of environment here in Korea and to the media. Third, we are also launching a preparation of the eighth general academic survey of Korea. Every two years, we make one survey. So, now we have some of the people here that are doing the survey for the first time. Also, we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Korea's Accession to the OECD. So all these together are the purposes of my trip officially.
Q: What is the result of your visit? A: The results are a very positive result, very good interviews, very satisfactory results because it was a very good macroeconomic performance by Korea, very good also performance on environment policy, quite positive. But Korea also has some challenges. For example, one very important challenge on the economic front, which I have signaled, is that Korea has aging and falling population, not only aging but also becoming smaller. This is very important element because this is going to cause a lot of pressure in the future. It is going to create problems to pensions and also to health system and medicare system for the elderly people. Also, the social security needs some strengthening because the safety net is not enough. It does not catch all the people who are working and there is a lot of dualism in the labor market. In the environment, we also have some challenges. For example, the fact that Korea still has very high consumption of energy per unit of GDP. So, that means Korea spends more energy than the other members of the OECD in producing US$1,000 of GDP on average. This is because Korea still has a very heavy manufacturing base and for manufacturing you need energy. You are still very high energy user. Your use of energy has not improved since 1990. It is still more or less same average, so not so good. You are doing very well in other areas. You have sustained the growth in economy, the inflation is low and the deficit is low. In the area of environment, for example, you have very high power of sanitation. You have integral approach to water management, you have a much tougher loss on emissions of carbon and you have reduced the emissions of sulfur oxide. Now, it is about half of the OECD level. But, still on the emission of carbon, it is very high. Because you use a lot of energy, you use a lot of carbon. You issue carbon, so that is a challenge. So far so good, good report on both economy, trade, as well as on environment but clearly these are challenges where you always have to continue making progress. You can never rest, never finish the job.
Q: What is your impression of the labor union activities in Korea? A: I read recently there has been some strikes at least in one of the plants in Ulsan, POSCO and Hyundai. This is probably because there are a vigorous, very active Trade Unions but there is always a possibility of negotiating and understanding between the private sector and the Unions. If the Unions squeeze too hard, then that means that the companies may not be able to accommodate the same level of employment. If, on the other hand, the employers pay too little or do not recognize the fact, this is a very important input for production. If you pay too little, you will have problems and you will have probably difficulty to recruit people who have the incentive to stay without working and this will be a lost opportunity. So, it has to be a good balance.
Q: What made you take the post of Secretary-General of OECD? A: I left the Mexican government in the year 2000 after 33 years of public service and of being always preparing even my masters degree I did it while being in the government. I was always studying, preparing, but 33 years of being a civil servant. And then, we lost the elections in the year 2000. So I left the government for these last five and six years. I have been a member of advisory boards, and I have been giving some consultancy to some countries. This is to make a living. But always, I wanted to go back to public issues, the questions of public policy. It was not possible in the administration because I am from another party, the opposition. So, I continued to work in center for rural development, the population council. I continued to work with the water panel that is advising the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the issue of water. I continued to work in all these nonprofit institutions but all of them are related to public policies. So, I always kept a very close watch on public policy.
Q: What is the role of the OECD in the future? A: The OECD has to become the hub of globalization, the center of the process of globalization. The OECD in the future has to be more than simply the physical space for the OECD building. It has to go out all over the world with a knowledge and message so that globalization becomes beneficial for everybody. We have good spillover of globalization. That globalization is a level playing field and also that globalization helps the poorest also, not just the rich countries. So, this is the task to make globalization work better for the benefit of everybody including the poorest countries.
Q: How do OECD members contribute to the poorest countries? A: First of all, we have the DAC (Development Assistance Committee). We have the DAC inside the OECD. We channel resources from the richest countries to the poorest countries. We develop the criteria, the accounting and the selection of areas of sectors so that is very interesting. The other thing is that the best practices are on agriculture, environment, taxes, monetary and fiscal policy. Anything that we promote is not only for member countries, but it is an outreach for non-member countries like the BRICs.
Q: What is your background in brief? A: I am 56 years old, married to an ophthalmologist with three children. I was born in Tampico, Mexico. I am an economist and worked in the public sector since I was 18 years old, for 33 uninterrupted years of my life as a civil servant. As the last job I had was as the finance minister. Before, I was a foreign minister and the president of National Development Bank for Medium and Small-sized Industries. I was president of Export Import Bank and I was deputy minister of Finance and chief of that negotiation team. It is a long history. Now, I am the Secretary-General of OECD.
Q: Would you explain about the economic conditions in Mexico today? A: There is good growth, low inflation and low interest rates, but we need to sustain growth in the medium and long term. We need to create more jobs and better employment and to improve competitiveness.
Q: You have the experience of NAFTA with the United States. Korea is now negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States. Do you have any words of advice on how to proceed for the Korean people? A: Mexico benefited very much from the NAFTA. It got some sectoral problems followed by product but, in general, Mexico benefited a lot. Exports from Mexico to the rest of the world increased several times and also exports from Mexico to the United States increased several times. We also had job creation, new investment, better paid jobs in the export sector. In general, the experience has been quite good. Now, the challenge is what to do for the next 10 years.
Q: Why did you become a public servant? A: I wanted to become a public servant ever since I was a teenager. I began being a public servant when I was 17 or 18, because I was going to university at the same time.
Q: What is your hobby? A: My hobby is to spend as much time as possible with my family. I play some tennis. Also, I like to walk. ¡Ú
