Membership of the OECD, the club of the world's most developed countries to which Croatia could be admitted in a few years, will be an additional instrument for reforms and social development, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development membership will mean “the perfecting of our functioning,” he said at a conference on Croatia’s journey towards the OECD and what membership brings.

“It’s another instrument for enhancing reform processes,” which was preceded by the strengthening of Croatia’s international position by joining the Schengen and euro areas, Plenkovic said.

OECD guidelines and programmes will lead to an improvement “of all those segments of Croatian society which we have brought to a very high level with our EU membership,” he added.

The OECD’s “special added value” is the system that will “enhance corporate management” in state-owned companies, he said.

Most EU member states are in the OECD, except Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania.

The OECD serves as “an informal secretariat of the G7 and the G20,” so membership will give Croatia a better insight into how the fora of the biggest world powers work, Plenkovic said.

The Croatian government submitted a letter of intent to join the OECD in 2017. Plenkovic said Croatia will join in 2025 “at the earliest”, but that he would “keep a certain flexibility” about that.

“Then we were furthest from membership, while today Croatia looks much readier” than other aspirants, he added.

Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said OECD membership “will be yet another important membership for Croatia.”

“Croatia will carry out numerous reforms through the accession process” in public administration, healthcare, trade, education, agriculture, transport, and the management of state-owned companies, he added.

OECD Secretary-General Matthias Cormann said accession would be a positive transformative journey for Croatia and that membership will raise living standards and bring corporate revenue and productivity closer to the OECD average.

Those are not just formalities, they will have tangible benefits for the population, he added.

Before the conference, he was received by Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, who said that having joined the euro and Schengen areas, OECD membership was Croatia’s next strategic foreign policy goal.

“OECD membership will make Croatia a part of the community of the world’s most developed countries which make up about 80% of the world economy and are committed to constantly enhancing the economic and social benefits for their citizens,” Jandrokovic said.