OECD stresses working together for investment, development

Secretary-General of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Angel Gurria, does not want to forget the major lesson from 2020.

“The world is fully integrated. Challenges don’t have borders,” he told the Asian Financial Forum in special virtual remarks on Jan 19. “The only way out of this crisis is by working together.”

Though we faced the unprecedented challenge from the pandemic across the globe as well as the worst economic recession since the World War Il, the outlook for 2021 is better as long as there is united effort among all.

“As vaccine rollout began, the prospects for 2021 are brighter, with global growth projected to be a positive 4.2 percent, as opposed to a contraction, a negative 4.2 percent last year,” he noted, adding the 2021 global growth could be limited to as low as 1.5 percent.

Gurria said that the OECD’s COVID- 19 Hub continues to grow with more than 180 policy briefs at this time in nearly all lines of the work of the organization, with many of them highly relevant to its partners in Asia.

OECD will continue to work with ASEAN, APEC, all Asian partners and stakeholders to build a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive future, he said. It is also working with Asian partners through the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP), and the organization has fostered regional integration and structural reform to ensure a resilient, inclusive recovery.

According to him, in OECD’s standards, the organization contributions to global forums, including APEC, G20, are helping deliver common solutions to shared concerns in fighting tax evasions, climate change, tackling trade and the distortions on investments.

He added that OECD has organized webinars on policy priorities for Asia Pacific in the background of COVID-19 pandemic, including “resilient infrastructure, global valued chains, protectionism and the support to SMEs and the crucial question of skills”.

Looking into the future, efforts on coordinating country or region responses to COVID-19 are crucial, with four priorities to be highlighted by Gurria.

The priorities include, first, designing and implementing stronger investment policies, as OECD helps different countries improve their invest environment through its investment policy reviews; second, helping companies manage business risks by aligning them with OECD standards through different programs; third, helping advance regions’ integration through trade and investment, working together with ASEAN, APEC and individual partner economy; and fourth, accelerating regional cooperation and promoting Asia’s digital development with the transformation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gurria particularly mentioned that OECD’s cooperation with China on services trade has promoted open market for trade and investment. “China is also a regular contributor to the OECD Trade in Value-Added Database, and it’s integrated into the OECD trade facilitation indicators,” he said.