In September 2010, Israel joined the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), which praised Israel's scientific and technological progress and described it as having "produced outstanding outcomes on a world scale." Much of the growth in the country's economy over the past couple of decades is attributable to the software, biomedical, electronics, telecommunications and other high-technology sectors as the percentage of Israelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry, and the amount spent on research and development (R&D) in relation to gross domestic product (GDP), is among the highest in the world. The high-tech industry contributes to about 43 percent of Israeli exports, but only employs 8.3 percent of the industry's workers.