2024 is a seminal year for Japan in the OECD: 60 years after Japan joined the Organization as the 21st member country in 1964, the country has once again been presiding over the OECD Ministerial Council. The Japanese government led the discussions, when OECD Ministers of the economy, finance, trade and others convened in Paris on 2-3 May under the theme "Co-Creating the Flow of Change".

This Presidency underlines Japan's clear commitment to the shared values and principles that define the OECD's likeminded membership of 38 market-based democracies — including on open trade and investment, economic growth and participation, innovation and digital economy, the environment and sustainable investment, good regulatory practice, as well as public governance and integrity.

At the same time, as significant shifts in the world economic order cause uncertainty, increase volatility and disrupt global supply chains, the OECD has been looking for Japan's strong leadership. This is also critical as geopolitical tensions threaten our capacity to make collective progress on common objectives such as decarbonization, digitalization and demographic change.

In the current context, the world economy needs an effective OECD more than ever: to foster evidence-based international cooperation; to promote pragmatic diplomacy; and to enable effective multilateralism that seeks mutual benefits based on enlightened self-interest. To this end, Business at OECD (BIAC) has been actively engaging with the OECD and the Japanese Presidency this year, benefitting from the strong support of our Japanese member Keidanren.

Business at OECD provides the unique institutional support of a network of the leading business federations in OECD countries, representing the voice of over 10 million companies - with the strong contributions from Keidanren to ensure the Japanese business view is duly reflected. Each year, we engage in a structured, continuous, and constructive process to help guide OECD Ministers and leadership to shape an agenda that addresses global business priorities.

The OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in May marked the grand final after a series of high-level engagements that Business at OECD organized with its members and governments. This included our Annual Consultation with the full Council of OECD Ambassadors and OECD leadership in Paris February, and our Consultation with the Ministerial Council Chair and OECD leadership in Tokyo in March.

Above all, Business at OECD has been underlining the primary need for the OECD to urgently reinforce the competitiveness of our market-based economies in the face of severe economic headwinds. Our high-level position paper lays out the joint recommendations of the leading business federations in OECD countries for the Ministerial sessions. These can be summarized as follows:

• Achieving a Sustainable Inclusive Economy and Society:
  We encouraged Ministers to increase economic competitiveness, including through good regulatory practice, a more supportive financial environment, infrastructure investments, active labor market policies and the right frameworks for skills development.
• Promoting Free Trade and Investment For Accelerating Sound Economic Growth:
  In the follow up to WTO MC13, we underlined the need for continued multilateral reform efforts. At the same time, we stressed that international trade and investment agreements — crucial tools to foster economic resilience through supply chain diversification — should be negotiated, agreed and ratified in a timely manner, especially among the OECD's likeminded membership.
• Enabling Economic Resilience and Security:
  We elevated business concerns about policies to re-shore global value chains, localize production and decouple our economies. In our market-based economies, governments should not attempt to control business operations and supply chains, but work closely with the private sector on policies that effectively enable more economic resilience and diversification.
• Promoting OECD Global Outreach and Proposing Credible Policies:
  We underlined that business looks to the OECD for meaningful international cooperation, pragmatic diplomacy, and effective multilateralism. In this regard, we strongly support the OECD to spread established good practices and standards for the governance of markets.
• Shaping Sustainable Growth under the Interlinked Global Crises:
  We emphasized that the key to success lies in addressing environmental challenges as a market opportunity rather than an expensive problem. This is the only way to effectively mobilize private sector funding and investment at the scale needed to support urgent sustainability action.
• Fostering Solution-Oriented Approaches to Emerging Challenges:
  We underscored that, based on multistakeholder engagement, business looks to the OECD to foster international coherent and interoperable policy frameworks, promote and secure sustainable innovation and communications infrastructure, and address related risks through policy leadership and standard-setting.

These recommendations helped shape the strategic mandate for the OECD for the coming year summarized in the 2024 Ministerial Council Statement. In addition, several OECD Standards were adopted, to which Business at OECD policy groups have been actively contributing. These include the revised Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises , the revised OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, and the revised AI Principles. Significant progress was also achieved related to OECD outreach and enlargement, including the handover to Indonesia and Argentina of their accession roadmaps and the 10th anniversary celebration of the OECD Southeast Asia regional program.

As Business at OECD has been actively engaging in the Ministerial Council preparations, we are grateful for the strong support and leadership from Keidanren as a long-standing member, which has provided Japanese business input and helped shape our activities for over 60 years.