Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Jose Angel Gurria

It doesn't really matter who owns things so long there is enough competition, which means lower pricing, better quality goods, more variety, and an economy where the consumers are the big winners.

In a globally interdependent world, a better financial and investment system cannot be achieved on a country-by-country basis. There may be no one-size-fits-all model for economic development, but without global standards and complementary regulations, the long-term outlook for the world economy will remain bleak.

You do need more revenues, and you do need to cut expenses. But you also don't want to go in a direction whereby increasing taxes creates a reticence to create new jobs. You don't want to increase taxes on work. You don't want to increase taxes on investment and the creation of wealth.

To give students the best possible chance to succeed, education must prepare them to handle issues that transcend national boundaries.

Some refugees will find it relatively easy to find jobs. A university-educated Syrian civil engineer arriving in Munich will need to learn some German, but once this is done, he or she is unlikely to have to wait too long before employers come knocking.

It is not good to cut exports or imports.

Countries like Japan do not have to change their cultures to address their educational shortcomings; they simply have to adjust their policies and practices.

'Tax' is a bad word for politicians.

The OECD should respond directly to the specific needs of the member countries. You basically say, 'What works?' You don't have to go on a discovery trip. It's all there; you just call them, and they know. It's like a knowledge bank.

The G7 doesn't have a permanent secretariat. The OECD can help the G8 and set the agenda for them. The secretary general of the OECD should be going to them proactively and discussing issues and priorities.

In a country like Mexico, you can't forget about poverty - about how half of the population lives in poverty, and how half of that half live in extreme poverty.

The concept of national treatment is a core component of investment and trade agreements. It promotes valuable competition on a level playing field. Investment treaties should not turn this idea on its head, giving privileges to foreign companies that are not available to domestic companies.

High levels of inequality generate high costs for society, dampening social mobility, undermining the labour market prospects of vulnerable social groups, and creating social unrest.

If we can rid the world of financial centres that thrive on lack of transparency, non-cooperation, and weak regulation, an important step towards a fairer and cleaner world economy will have been achieved.

Our planet is warming dangerously.

Some politicians fear the burden that migrants will impose on local communities and taxpayers. Others fear extremists masquerading as genuine refugees.

At the OECD, we stand ready to continue to help our member and partner countries to design, promote, and implement Better Policies for Better Lives.

The OECD deals with the economic aspects of a host of issues, including education, health, and the environment.

In the face of sluggish growth, aging societies, and increasing educational attainment of young women, the economic case for gender equality is clear.

Our leaders must get to grips with the huge risk that carbon dioxide emissions pose to the economy and the environment. As we know, carbon dioxide is a long-lived gas. It hangs around.

Creating a global platform for collaboration in education research and innovation has been the PISA initiative's aspiration from its conception in the late 1990s.

Everywhere, you have a fatigue for reform... that's very serious.

I feel confident that leaders will rise to this challenge with a stronger commitment to tackle climate change and seize the economic opportunities that a post-carbon world has to offer.

If we want a stronger, cleaner, and fairer world economy, we need to deal with the controversial areas of globalisation, such as tax havens.

We need to achieve zero emissions from fossil fuel sources by the second half of the century. That doesn't mean by 2050 exactly, but it means by that time we need to be pretty much on the way to achieving it.

Ending our reliance on fossil fuels was never going to be easy.

The whole banking sector in Mexico was literally bankrupt. For whatever reason, instead of intervening in the sector or supporting the banks, the government expropriated them. We went through the very laborious period of selling the failing banks to the wealthy people of Mexico.

Providing investors with recourse against governments is valuable.

Governments can and do expropriate investors or discriminate against them. Domestic judicial and administrative systems provide investors with one option for protecting themselves.

The home is the planet. Unless you're a Martian, you know, we're sharing the planet. And - and the emissions don't stop and CO2 doesn't stop with the border between France, Spain or between Canada and the United States.

European leaders cannot afford to be afraid. The refugee crisis is not one from which they can opt out. No magic wand will empower leaders to transport more than a million people back across the Aegean and the Bosphorus to Mosul and Aleppo, or across the Mediterranean to Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan.

In order to encourage private investors to pursue long-term, responsible projects, governments need to promote consistent policies and frameworks.

Social cohesion and inclusive growth are additional crucial perspectives to incorporate into public policies, targeting a renewed social contract that reduces inequalities and benefits the whole of society.

History is full of lessons for how water crises could have been avoided or better managed.

Unlike other essential goods, like clothing, shelter, or food, we take cheap or even free water for granted. It often takes a crisis, such as a major drought or flood, to spur investment and policy reforms in improving water security.

Gender equality is essential for ensuring that men and women can contribute fully at home, at work, and in public life for the betterment of societies and economies at large.

I was an economist out of the National University of Mexico, where you lived the realities of Mexico all the time.

Every single stage of reform becomes more difficult because you use political capital.

Governments must address inconsistencies in their energy strategies, consider the links with broader economic policies, and stop sending mixed signals to consumers, producers, and investors. In particular, they must assess whether the right regulatory arrangements are in place to allow clean-energy investments to compete on a risk-return basis.

Labour and land are always politically sensitive.

Every country faces its own obstacles to reaching gender equality, and to make a real difference, we must change public policies in tandem with stereotypes, attitudes, and behaviors.

You can accuse Europeans of being many things - except fast.

There is no reason for women to trail behind men in social, economic, and political outcomes.

In a world that places a growing premium on social skills, education systems need to do much better at fostering those skills systematically across the school curriculum.

When, as an individual, you are not paying taxes, it is evasion. As a corporate, it is legal shrewdness or tax engineering.

Regulations for international accounting and funding will have to be examined to identify policies that inadvertently discourage institutional investors from putting their resources into longer-term, illiquid assets.

The OECD advocates a risk-based approach to water security and is calling on governments to speed up their efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness of water management. We recommend improving water pricing to recover costs and to reflect the value of water to users and society.

The OECD should promote everything that's consistent with its mandate, which is to make the world economy work better.

If the world is to avoid a collision with nature - one that humanity surely cannot win - we must act boldly on every front, particularly with respect to carbon pricing and the coherence of our economic and energy policies.

Principles of fair and equitable treatment included in many treaties are uncontroversial as general principles of good public governance.

Words must be matched by action if change is to become lasting.

The benefits of growth have not trickled down. Income inequalities have become one of the biggest global challenges, attracting growing attention not only in academic literature but also among policymakers globally.

By assessing the capabilities and knowledge of students in the highest-performing and most rapidly improving education systems, the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment provides valuable options for reform and information on how to achieve it.

Water security is not just for domestic policies. International co-operation is crucial to sustainably manage trans-boundary water bodies and river basins.

It isn't only rich countries that suffer from the effects of tax havens. Developing countries also lose billions of dollars in tax revenues due each year because wealthy individuals and some companies use tax havens to move assets and income offshore.

It takes collaboration across a community to develop better skills for better lives.

Most businesses do not take governments seriously when it comes to climate, primarily because many governments have inconsistent and incoherent policies and then often keep changing them, sometimes retroactively. This makes businesses reluctant to invest in greener technologies.

Transparency and effective tax co-operation must be shared principles applied by all. Until they are, nations will need to protect themselves against loss of revenues to tax havens.

Our work at the OECD shows that migration, if well managed, can spur growth and innovation. Unfortunately, in the past, migration has not always been well managed: migrants have been concentrated in ghetto-like conditions, with few public services or employment prospects.

A more robust approach to global warming is needed if we are to avoid catastrophe. Unlike the recent financial crisis, there is no bailout option for the earth's climate.