Hungary and the OECD
The OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works – according to its slogan - to build “better policies for better lives”. Founded in 1961, the main objective of the Organisation is to promote sustainable economic growth, increase employment, living standards, financial stability and the expansion of world trade in cooperation with the Member States.
Today, the OECD has 38 Member countries, from North and South America to Europe and Asia-Pacific. They are represented by ambassadors at the OECD Council, which defines and oversees the Organisation’s work as set out in the OECD Convention. The most recent countries to join the OECD were Colombia in April 2020 and Costa Rica in May 2021. The OECD works closely with some of the world’s largest economies: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, who are OECD Key Partners.
Within the Organisation Governments are working together with other stakeholders to share evidence and experiences, find solutions to common economic, social and environmental challenges, identify best practices and develop evidence-based international standards. The OECD draws on 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow.
Hungary and the OECD
Hungary joined as the 27th official member of the OECD May 7, 1996 and also acceded to the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). A year later, Hungary deposited its instrument of accession as well at the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In 2021, Hungary celebrates its 25th anniversary of accession to the OECD with accumulated knowledge and impressive amount of experiences gained. For us, the key words of this cooperation of the last quarter-century are: opportunity and common thinking, equality, partnership and alliance, mutual benefit and efficiency and continuous renewal.
The membership of our country is an opportunity which, through common thinking, ensures the possibility of being part of a global professional knowledge- network where best practices and solutions are available on an international level. Besides, in several policy areas our own country’s efforts and results can be presented also.
The Hungarian National Council of OECD
The Hungarian National Council of OECD was established July 12, 2011 in order to harmonise the benefits stemming from Hungary’s OECD membership and to make them more effective. The National Council of OECD is a professional high-level forum which ensures the creation of regular dialogues and enables members in reaching joint positions.
Members of the National Council of OECD come from ministries, related institutions and from other organisations concerned in OECD-cooperation. Hungary is an active member of the OECD: we are interested in about 250 committees and working groups, therefore it is essential that participants exchange information on their activities so that we can represent a coherent Hungarian standpoint.
The National Council meets regularly at least twice a year.
Leadership of the Hungarian National Council of OECD
Tibor Tóth
Chairman of the National Council of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Mr. Tibor Tóth is State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, responsible for Macroeconomics and International Affairs. Furthermore, he is the Chairman of the National Council of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Alternate Governor of the World Bank Group, also the member of the EFC.
He graduated from University of Miskolc in 1996 and obtained degrees both at Faculty of Economics, and at Collage for Foreign Trade. After graduation, he worked as a tax advisor and later as a senior advisor at Arthur Andersen.
For eight years he held senior positions at the ABN Amro Bank and at the Citibank before he became the Deputy CEO of the KDB Bank (Europe) Zrt. between 2005 and 2021.
In 2021 he was appointed as M&A Director at Biggeorge/Otthon Centrum.
He is fluent in English.
Gábor Szőcs
Deputy State Secretary for Macroeconomic and European Affairs
Mr. Gábor Szőcs is Deputy State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, responsible for Macroeconomic and European Affairs (September 2023 - ). He is member both in the EU and the OECD Economic Policy Committees. Furthermore, he is the Chairman of the Hungarian National Contact Point of the OECD.
Graduated from the University of Miskolc in 1996 and obtained degree at Faculty of Economics. He is fluent in English.
He has more than 25 years of banking experience. Started his career at the international financial advisory firm Arthur Andersen and continued as a tax advisor at KPMG. He spent more than 20 years with prestigious institutions in the domestic and international banking sector, first with the Raiffeisen Group, then with the Korea Development Bank, the Hungarian Banking Association and finally with the Hungarian Export-Import Bank. At this latter one, as Chief International Officer, he was mainly focusing on international affairs. His main responsibilities included overseeing EXIM's foreign representative offices, focusing on international business development and strengthening multilateral organisational relations. Since 2015 he has been Hungary's contact person to the World Bank (Private Sector Liaison Officer). He was the member of the Management Committee of the Berne Union, the leading global association for the export credit and investment insurance industry for 2 years and also represented Hungary in the export credit working group of the EU and of the OECD for 5 years.
László Havas
Ambassador, Permanent Representative
Mr. László Havas joined the Permanent Delegation of Hungary to the OECD and UNESCO in April 2024 as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the OECD and UNESCO.
Before he took up his current position, he served Hungary for four and a half years at the Embassy of Hungary Beijing as Evoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in charge of Financial Affairs. Among maintaining and developing relationships with Chinese financial authorities and institutions, he represented Hungary in the wider European constituency at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and in the governing and coordination committees of the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF).
Earlier, he worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development where he served as Director, Member of the Board representing Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Georgia for three years.
Mr. Havas has an over 30-year banking experience. During his banking career he spent the most in the Capital Markets. He started his experience in Financial Institutions departments at different commercial banks, however, he soon took up proprietary trading and sales positions in treasury division of foreign-owned banks. From 1997 he had taken up different managerial positions in various capital markets operations until 2013. He worked in banks owned by Hungarian, West-European and Far-Eastern shareholders. He served over 10 years at Credit Agricole CIB Hungarian Branch. Since 2013 he had been in several assignments in Executive and Supervisory positions, such as Member of the Board of Directors, Executive Director for Controlling & Compliance and Chairman of the Supervisory Board in the financial services industry.
Mr. Havas graduated from the Budapest Corvinus University as an Economist. He holds an EFFAS (European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies) diploma as well. In addition to his native language Hungarian, Mr. Havas speaks fluent English.
Originally, this homepage was created for Hungarians to give a detailed and complete overview of the work done in Hungary in relation to the OECD. Concerning our country, it also presents latest news, events and OECD publications including policy analysis of the global economy.