"We must reform the reforms"

Interview with José Ángel Gurría, Secretary General of the OECD.

We should not be afraid of change, says José Ángel Gurría, "Change is part of life, and in any case, it is an obligation to promote it," says the Secretary-General. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): "We have to reform the reforms because you do not always hit the first (…) We can not say that, as we have not had any results (structural reforms) in 12 months, we will not see them in 24 months and we will have to change everything ".

This is the third transition Gurría has seen since the OECD. He participated in another, as part of Ernesto Zedillo's team, "it's the best. The most interaction between incoming and outgoing teams". State Secretary for Education, Otto Granados, has met more than 30 times his successor, Esteban Moctezuma, said the former Treasury Secretary and the former Mexican Chancellor. "That gives me a lot of peace … I was responsible for the transition in 2000. I can say that they were ready to publish the white papers.Every leader had to forward them to a manager or advisor because the owner would be appointed a few hours before the president took the protest. "

Gurría Treviño met the next chief of staff, Alfonso Romo, with whom he will be Secretary of Communications and Transport (SCT), Javier Jiménez Espriú; the proposal to occupy the secretariat of public education, Esteban Moctezuma Arce; with Carlos Urzúa, future Secretary of the Treasury and Graciela Márquez, next Secretary of the Economy.

She notes that the future secretary of the economy is a former partner of a Harvard master's degree from Gabriela Ramos, director of the OECD cabinet. "And I can tell you that in the running of the organization, our chief of staff is the one who ensures the operation of the organization.It is Sherpa of the G20 and the G7."

Officials from the next government have asked for help from the OECD on health, education, taxation, digital, regulatory and competition issues, said the secretary general of the government. 39; organization.

The official claims to have given each of the four future state secretaries and the head of government three, four and five pages of what the organization is doing in the areas requested; the campaign proposals focused on the required topics and the books containing Mexico's analyzes and diagnoses on these specific topics.

"What they hear and what they want to adopt is a privilege of the interlocutor.Our task is to tell the officials who will be part of the new cabinet what we do with Mexico and what we can propose because we constantly diagnose it, "he said.

He points out that the OECD's closest relations with Mexico, that is, with the people with whom they worked the most and most continuously during their 12 years at the head of the entity , were with the Secretary of Economy: from Eduardo Sojo to Ildefonso Guajardo

Awareness of the problem and political will

-What would you say Mexico's big problem for the next administration?

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth, but growth with equity. Inclusive growth Social protection networks. Free trade agreements used for diversification. You have the digital world moving at an astonishing speed, and we are two or even three years behind in the areas of education and digital. In addition, we are still discussing the possibility of an evaluation of teachers. Imagine that in advanced countries the evaluation of teachers is a constant for 100 years.

On many issues, we are late, we are a developing country and we have the advantage that with best practices, the OECD can help speed up processes. But we must also be aware of the problem and have the political will to solve it.

– During his visit to Mexico, especially in front of economists winners, he spoke about growth with equity. Why is this particularly important for the country?

In a country where half of the population lives in poverty and half in extreme poverty, the task of economic growth must be linked to redistribution. There can only be productivity growth, no more redistribution of fish and bread. Public policies should link the growth of the economy to redistribution.

Fairness competition

The lack of competition creates a problem of productivity, but especially of equity.

He says "there needs to be more competition, more competition and more competition, from bread to telecommunications, from the most basic: eggs, chicken, to the most sophisticated and complicated, like telecommunications."

It argues that "Mexico is a country of monopolies, oligopolies and duopoly … five years after our telecom diagnosis, the price of broadband has dropped by 75% and the number broadband subscribers account for 60 million They can already pay and when the service was controlled by a monopoly, prices were very controlled.

He stressed that, in the continuity that should be given to Mexico in the matter of telecommunications competition over the next six years, whether broadcasting or broadcasting, the same monopolistic actor could be a fundamental element of openness, which is very paradoxical, he concluded.

The Secretary General of the OECD said that it will probably be in January, when he will have the opportunity to meet with President López Obrador, because the agenda of the next president will not be held. 39 is not materialized. It also means that he will not attend the inauguration on December 1st.