Chile Hopes To Join OECD Before March 2010

Source: Wall Street Journal

SANTIAGO -(Dow Jones)- Chile has a good chance of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development before the current Bachelet administration ends in March 2010, Finance Minister Andres Velasco said Thursday.

Before Chile is accepted into the organization, it must modify its legislation in the areas of exchange of tax information, corporate governance in private and public companies, and legal responsibility in bribery cases, the minister said in a statement.

Several bills currently in the Chilean congress seek to address these issues, and the government hopes the legislature will approve them shortly.

Velasco, who's in France at an OECD meeting, said member nations have indicated "that there's good probabilities that [joining the OECD] will happen."

He added that the legal reforms Chile must make aren't just a requisite sought by the OECD but are sound public policies and part of President Michelle Bachelet's efforts to increase transparency and corporate governance.

The rest of the process of reviewing Chile's policies is moving along, and Velasco said he doesn't "anticipate any additional problems to the aforementioned bills."

Chile, as well as Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia, are in the process of applying to join the OECD.

-By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-820-4244; carolina.pica@ dowjones.com

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06-25-091557ET
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