Business welcomes the focus of this year’s OECD Ministerial meeting, which takes place under the overarching theme of Unlocking investment for Sustainable Growth and Jobs. Industry calls upon the OECD to speak up and convince countries of the need to remove the most persistent barriers to markets and put in place pro-investment policies.

Rob Mulligan, USCIB’s senior vice president for policy and government affairs, is in Paris representing USCIB members at and around the Ministerial and at the OECD’s annual Forum earlier in the week. USCIB represents U.S. business at the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD, which released a policy statement and recommendations ahead of the Ministerial on investment issues.

“A predictable policy framework and an effective cross-government approach are fundamental for investment,” said USCIB Trade and Investment Committee Chairman Rick Johnston at a ministerial panel discussion on Investment, Innovation and Business Climate. “This is recognized by the newly updated OECD Policy Framework for Investment. Fostering both domestic and foreign investment should be governments’ primary objective”.

The OECD Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) provides an important checklist across a range of different policy areas to assist governments in creating an enabling investment environment. BIAC has been an active partner in the update of the PFI and calls for sustained efforts to ensure its implementation, notably as part of the post-2015 development agenda. BIAC strongly believes that policies that foster innovation and investment opportunities will also be key for the transition to a low-carbon economy.

BIAC also called for strengthening global value chains and financing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). “Actions are urgently needed to step-up SME financing and enable companies to participate in global value chains”, said Phil O’Reilly, BIAC’s chairman, speaking on June 4 at a BIAC-B20 Turkey special event.

BIAC’s five recommendations on Unlocking Investment for Sustainable Growth and Jobs are laid down in a 2015 Statement to the OECD MCM.