The 22nd Plenary Session of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), took place on the 4th of July, in Angra do Heroísmo (Azores, Portugal) and the AIR Centre had the pleasure of participating with the representation of our Innovation Manager in Blue Economy, Natalia Ospina-Alvarez, as part of the invited panellists.

The opening session, on July 3rd, had the interventions of the Director of the OECD Development Centre, Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, the Vice-President of the Regional Government, Artur Lima and the Permanent Representative of Portugal to the OECD, Ambassador Manuel Lobo Antunes.

The topics addressed in this plenary meeting are of relevant importance for the Outermost Regions, including sustainability, globalisation, technological challenges, blue economy, and international cooperation among many others. The AIR Centre intervened with a kick-off presentation in Session 3: Drivers of Economic Transformation: Innovative Ocean, featuring the projects Azores EcoBlue, EOatSee, CUSTODIAN, ICEBERG and A-AAGORA.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation where 38 countries from North America and South America to Europe and Asia-Pacific collaborate to develop policy standards to promote sustainable economic growth.

Reference documents:

OECD (2023), “Innovative oceans: Drivers of internationalisation for the EU Outermost regions”, OECD Development Policy Papers, No. 51, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e28cc1f5-en.