ASEAN countries face challenges to increase competitiveness: OECD

Main countries of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) need to increase their competitiveness in line with other member countries, an official said here on Thursday. “Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines face challenges to improve their competitiveness as other member countries such as Vietnam has emerged to be an important investment destination in the region,” Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Mario Amano said.

According to him, major disparities remain in some of ASEAN member countries.

“While some countries are good in terms of certain economic activities, others are not,” he said.

He also said that political will is needed to address internal contraints that hamper the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow.

However, Amano said that center of the global economy has shifted to east, south and southeast Asia from developed countries. “And, ASEAN will become one of the global economic development powerhouses,” said Amano.

According to ASEAN FDI statistics, share of FDI inflows from OECD countries into ASEAN remained consistently significant at approximately 47 percent, both in 2008 and 2009, despite the dire impact of the global financial crisis.

ASEAN Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community Sundram Pushpanathan said that this consistent shares of the FDI inflows from the OECD countries to ASEAN signifies that OECD’s interest in ASEAN region remains upbeat and shows continued confidence in the region.

About 200 delegates, including representatives from ASEAN and OECD governments, representatives from diplomatic community in the capital city of Jakarta, dialog partners, private sector, non- governmental organization, international organizations and academia participate in “the ASEAN-OECD Investment Policy Conference” on Nov. 18-19.