Whitney Young Baird, USCIB President and CEO, participated in the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Forum: Partnership for Prosperity in Bangkok, Thailand on May 2. This annual Forum is dedicated to spotlighting how Southeast Asia can engage more deeply with the OECD and its legal instruments.  It also provided an opportunity to engage with Indonesia and Thailand who are currently undergoing the OECD accession process.  

Baird advanced USCIB Member perspectives on two panels at the Forum: a Business Roundtable on Investment, organized by the OECD, Business at OECD (BIAC), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a plenary meeting on The OECD and High-Quality Investment: a Public-Private Dialogue.  

“Foreign direct investment is incredibly important to SE Asia to promote infrastructure development, renewable energy projects and the digital transformation,” said Baird. “As the longstanding voice for the US private sector on international investment policy, USCIB cannot overstate the importance for ASEAN countries to provide an enabling environment, including strong investor safeguards and regulatory coherence, to reduce uncertainty and attract US business to the region.” 

During the Forum, BIAC Southeast Asia Chair Phil O’Reilly presented a recently published joint BIAC – ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC) report, “Partnership for Prosperity”. OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann and Thailand’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Maris Sangiampongsa, attended the meeting, along with over 200 participants.  

BIAC and ABAC also organized two private sector roundtables on Sustainable Investment in an Uncertain World, and Digitalization and AI: Harnessing Innovation for Growth. 

Read the priorities paper here.