02/05/2024 - Leaders and Ministers from OECD member countries and Southeast Asia commemorated the tenth anniversary of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP) today during the 2024 Council Meeting at Ministerial Level.
As a global hub for key supply chains and both a source and destination for foreign investment, Southeast Asia is an increasingly vital economic partner for OECD countries. Recognising the region's strategic and economic importance, the OECD launched the SEARP at the OECD's 2014 Ministerial Council Meeting chaired by then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Since 2014, the number of adherences to OECD legal instruments by Southeast Asian nations has increased from 30 to 63, and participation in OECD bodies from 30 to 58. The SEARP supports Southeast Asia in its priorities for domestic reform and regional integration, including support to policy makers to move closer to OECD standards and instruments. Across 13 work streams ranging from tax policy to tourism, it brings policy makers from the OECD and from Southeast Asian countries together to share good practices and develop solutions to shared global challenges.
"The Southeast Asia Regional Programme, launched in 2014 by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has successfully supported the reform agenda of countries across the region, including more effective anti-corruption frameworks, new competition laws and the establishment of new competition authorities, further support for innovation and more effective public governance frameworks," OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in marking the occasion alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Dr Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. "These efforts to support policy makers move closer to OECD standards and instruments has made remarkable strides, leading to the historic decision to open accession discussions with Indonesia and consideration of Thailand's request to join the OECD. As ASEAN develops its Community Vision 2045, the OECD will further boost our work to support regional economic integration including through the Implementation Plan for the OECD Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific."
Co-operation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been key to the SEARP's support for Southeast Asia's regional economic integration. With the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding in 2022, the OECD and ASEAN accelerated mutual engagement in 35 critical areas such as taxation, the regulatory environment for trade, sustainable infrastructure, skills development, and digital transition.
Alongside ASEAN, as part of its regional engagement, the OECD has signed Memorandums of Understanding with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
The OECD has also worked bilaterally with Indonesia as a Key Partner of the Organisation since 2007, with the OECD Council recently making the historic decision to open accession discussions with Indonesia as the first OECD accession candidate country from Southeast Asia. In addition, the OECD has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore, and Country Programmes with Thailand and Viet Nam seek to contribute to these nations' economic policy agendas. Building on this foundation, Thailand recently made a request to enter accession discussions with the Organisation.
