PARIS: Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar held bilateral meeting with Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Secretary General Angel Gurria in French capital. This was his second meeting with OECD secretary general in the last three years. The minister informed the secretary general that the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative assistance in tax matters, which he signed on 14th September, 2016 in Paris has been ratified by the Pakistani cabinet. He added that the Pakistani cabinet also authorised the finance minister for processing Pakistan’s membership to Open Government Partnership (OGP). Accordingly, he handed over Pakistan’s Letter of Intent for joining OGP to the French President Francois Hollande in the OGP Global Summit held in Paris. Gurria welcomed Pakistan’s membership to OGP which coupled with Pakistan’s active engagements with OECD clearly demonstrate Pakistan’s commitment to join the international mainstream fora to adopt their best practices and to a transparent and accountable governing structure. He invited Pakistan to join OECD Development Centre and offered OECD’s technical help for developing Pakistan’s National Action Plan for OGP. Senator Dar shared with OECD secretary general that Pakistan was currently working to meet the OECD criteria and parameters to formally apply for accession to OECD Convention on Combating Bribery. Earlier, the finance minister met with UK Anti-Corruption Head Sir Eric Pickels, on the sidelines of the OGP summit. Sir Eric congratulated the finance minister on joining OGP, while the Minister informed Sir Eric that Pakistan was the first country to issue a tax directory of parliamentarians and the fourth country to publish general tax directory of tax payers for the three consecutive years. They also discussed matters relating to transparency and good governance. ENGIE, a leading French energy company, Head of European and International Relations Denis Simonneau, also called on the finance minister at the Embassy of Pakistan in Paris and expressed interest of his corporate group to cooperate in the field of energy in Pakistan.