The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

The OECD was created in 1961 and had 29 members in 1999. These members are countries with developed markets. The OECD's role is to promote sustainable growth and employment, contribute to economic and social welfare, stimulate and harmonize members'efforts in favour of developing nations and contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, nondiscriminatory basis. In 1990, the OECD established the Centre for Cooperation with the Economies in Transition (CCET) to address the development needs of those countries.

According to Hudson (1997), the OECD countries control 61.56 percent of shares of the International Telecommunication Satellite Organization (Intelsat), with the five largest users (the US, the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany) controlling 41,12 percent. Thus, change in Intelsat's policy would require an endorsement of several of these countries. Developing countries' shares ranged from 2,31 percent for China and 1,95 percent for India to 0,05 percent for the smaller users such as Afghanistan, Croatia, Honduras and Zimbabwe in 1997. The above share percentages for developing countries portray the core-periphery imbalances, which demonstrate the economic divide between developed countries and LDCs. For this situation to change, developing countries need to get more shares in these consortia. The question arises as to whether these developing countries will meet this challenge or not. Many LDCs may not have the financial resources to do that at present.

According to the OECD, the greatest challenge open to developing countries is the need to understand the benefits that communications infrastructures can provide and to put forward an appropriate framework to facilitate this. The OECD's influence lies mainly in its research and statistical analysis, its reputation for superior technical and analytical work and its track record in helping member countries reach consensus on difficult issues (Mansell & Wehn 1998). Another international organization that is influential in the world today is the World Bank. Let us look at what the WB does and how it functions.