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OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme

 

The programme aims to bring the relationship of the OECD and Southeast Asian countries to a new, more strategic level, support domestic reform processes and contribute to regional integration initiatives. Partnership and enhanced regional integration are key to supporting long-term growth prospects by investing in people, education and vocational training, empowering women, and ensuring that policies are in place making the most of talent of the workforce. Read more (PDF)

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>> Southeast Asia Regional Programme Events Calendar 


The 2016 Southeast Asia Regional Forum took place on 14 June 2016 in Hanoi, Viet Nam.  

 

>> The 2015 OECD Southeast Asia Regional Forum marked the inauguration of the OECD’s new Southeast Asia Office, in Jakarta. The Office serves as a platform for boosting OECD work in the region and enabling the Organisation to collaborate more closely with counterparts in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia. Read about the Southeast Asia Office





‌‌A stronger collaboration with Southeast Asia

The Programme was launched as ASEAN economies are aiming to create the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). In 2007, ASEAN leaders adopted the AEC Blueprint which lays out specific policy measures and actions to achieve the AEC by 2015. The Blueprint aims to establish a Single Market and Production Base, foster a Competitive Economic Region, Equitable Economic Development, and further integration into the Global Economy. The OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme works to support these goals.

Thematic Engagement

The Programme’s structure is designed to encourage a systematic exchange of experience to develop common solutions to regional and global policy challenges. It is comprised of thematic six Regional Policy Networks (RPNs), the Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India, and three Initiatives which will build on the work programme of substantive OECD and Southeast Asian bodies and dialogue processes.

Regional Policy Networks (RPNs) 

Tax Policies and Administrations

The OECD has co-operated with Southeast Asian countries on tax issues since the launch of the OECD-Korea Tax Centre in 1997 and technical events organised in the region by the Committee on Fiscal Affairs. The Network on Tax Policies aims to promote cooperation regionally and, with the global tax community, share best practices in international tax issues, tax administration and policy.

Latest studies and events:

 

 

Investment Policy and Promotion

OECD work on investment policy in South East Asia is well-established. The OECD and the ASEAN Secretariat are jointly implementing the ASEAN-OECD Investment Programme, which comprises country-level policy reviews and regional dialogues on investment. During recent consultations, Southeast Asian representatives expressed strong interest in further co-operation with the OECD in investment issues and highlighted a few priority areas.

Latest studies and events:

 

Education and Skills Development

This Network co-ordinates and streamlines activities through which the OECD aims to help the region build a better qualified workforce. Already, five Southeast Asian countries participated in the OECD's 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In recent consultations with the ASEAN Secretariat, regional qualification frameworks were mentioned as a key area for potential further collaboration.

 Latest studies: 

  • Teaching and Learning International Surveys (TALIS)
  • Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)
  • For more information

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME)

The Network strengthens the work of the OECD and the ASEAN Secretariat to support enterprise policy development in the region. In November 2013, results of the first OECD-ASEAN SME Policy Index were presented. The OECD is also collaborating with the Asian Development Bank on enhancing access to finance for SMEs and entrepreneurs.

Latest studies and events:

 

Good Regulatory Practices                    

The first official meeting of the Good Regulatory Practice Network took place in March 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Network serves to assist ASEAN Member countries in building and strengthening capacity for the implementation of good regulatory practice to assure high-quality and regulatory coherence. It will achieve its mission by fostering the exchange of good practice and mutual leaning among policy makers in ASEAN and OECD member countries

 

 

Connectivity and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)

The needs for infrastructure investment in Asia are enormous. These needs can only be met if traditional forms of public investment are supplemented with private financing of infrastructure e.g. through public-private partnerships. The Network supports regional efforts to establish a well-connected ASEAN Community through activities including diagnostic work, tailored advice, comparative data collection and training.

Initiatives 

Trade

The Trade Initiative aims to build a closer dialogue on trade issues between ASEAN and OECD members over time, building confidence in the region about the relevance of the OECD’s work on trade and identifying areas of mutual interest in trade policy. Much of the OECD Trade Committee’s work is highly relevant to ASEAN’s efforts to improve market “connectivity”. This is particularly the case in relation to on-going work on trade facilitation, services trade and the factors that shape effective participation in global value chains.

  • For more information
 

Innovation

The Initiative serves as a platform to discuss and exchange experiences among Southeast Asian and OECD countries on policies for innovation. The Initiative draws on the OECD Regional Review of Innovation Policy (2013) that covers Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, as well as recent and on-going country-specific Reviews of Innovation Policy.

 

 

 

 

Gender

The Initiative aims to build on the existing, OECD-wide Gender Initiative, which is focussed on strengthening gender equality in education, employment and entrepreneurship (the “three Es”). The OECD has developed key principles to foster gender quality as laid out in the OECD Gender RecommendationA common theme across the areas in the need for further work on the definition and development of metrics to inform policy decision-making and to measure and track change. Collaboration with partners will be critical going forward as the OECD works to mainstream a gender perspective across its programme of work. The OECD held the Gender Initiative meeting in March 2015 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

Economic Outlook on Southeast Asia, China and India

The Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India is a bi-annual publication on Asia’s economic growth, development and regional integration process. This Outlook was initially discussed at an informal reflection group on Southeast Asia in 2008 as a follow-up of the OECD Council Meeting at Ministerial Level (MCM) in 2007 and was accepted by ministers/senior officials from ASEAN countries at the occasion of the 2nd OECD-Southeast Asia Regional Forum in Bangkok in 2009. The Outlook project was officially launched in 2010.

The Outlook is the result of policy dialogue and consultation through Informal Consultation Group Meeting (ICG) in Paris and the Asian Regional Roundtable on Macroeconomic and Structural Policy Challenges, jointly organised with AMRO, ADB/ADBI, and ERIA, in Asian countries.

 

 

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