Senior representatives from two USCIB member firms were panelists at an April 20 joint meeting of the OECD and the World Bank Group on Investment Climate Reform in Washington. Keying off the OECD’s updating of its Policy Framework for Investment (PFI), a policy checklist for developing countries looking to attract more private Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the seminar focused on ways the OECD and World Bank Group can cooperate to promote investment climate reform around the world.

USCIB and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) have been active over the last 15 months as the ten year-old PFI has undergone a rigorous assessment and updating process.  The OECD is on track to formally adopt the updated PFI at its annual ministerial in Paris in early June.  The Bank Group and the OECD are strengthening their cooperation around the updated PFI as a tool to drive investment policy reform.

This week’s session included high level speakers from the OECD, World Bank, and U.S. government plus the Finnish and Myanmar co-chairs of the year-long PFI update process.  The April 20 session included a panel of business representatives. Along with a Madagascar entrepreneur, USCIB members Kimberley Claman of Citigroup and Nicole Bivens Collinson of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg P.A. spoke for the private sector.  They laid out their perspectives on what international investors look for in assessing investments in developing countries.  Their comments sparked a good exchange with other seminar participants, including USCIB staffers Shaun Donnelly, vice president for investment and financial services, and Eva Hampl director of investment, trade and financial services.

USCIB appreciates the contributions Claman and Bivens Collinson made to the PFI session at the bank this week as well as the contributions other members have made throughout the year-long review and update process on the PFI documents.