Thailand needs 5-7 years to join OECD, former Thai ambassador to US says

While Thailand pledges to complete its accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by 2028, Pisan Manawapat, Thailand’s former ambassador to the United States, said the country could need at least five to seven years to become a full member.

Pisan said the 2028 target is nearly impossible given the scale of reforms required and the need for greater coordination among government agencies.

“The most difficult or impossible task is to fulfil the government pledge before parliament to enter and become a member of OECD by 2028. From all I heard from my colleagues who have been working on OECD entry, they believe it requires at least five to seven years, at least,” he noted.

Pisan, who spent 36 years in the Foreign Ministry, said one of the key challenges was getting ministries and government agencies to work together rather than operating in silos.

“The Foreign Ministry does not have much problem of working together because our departments are small and we are all rotated. But in other agencies, even within the same ministry, they don't talk to each other. They don't keep each other updated.”

“And OECD requires a lot of joint efforts working in tandem,” he pointed out.

He said the OECD would assess Thailand’s overall progress rather than examining the work of individual ministries separately, making cross-agency cooperation essential.

“They're not going to come to each ministry and check the work. They're going to come and see the overall work. So the culture and work ethic in silo would have to be demolished. And we just have to learn to work together as a team,” Pisan opined.

Anti-corruption key challenge

Pisan said strengthening Thailand’s anti-corruption framework would be another major hurdle to OECD membership.

The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention requires member countries and signatories to criminalise bribery of officials in international business transactions and ensure effective enforcement.

He said Thailand already has laws covering counter-corruption and anti-money laundering, but needs to align both legislation and implementation with OECD standards.

“This anti-corruption convention requires all signatories to issue and implement law banning giving briberies to foreign officials. The challenge is to align our existing law and implement it to meet the standard of the OECD anti-corruption convention. That is a big, big question mark,” he noted.

Pisan also questioned whether Thailand had demonstrated sufficient commitment to tackling corruption, pointing to its relatively low position in international corruption rankings.

Thailand pledges to complete its accession to OECD by 2028

Beyond corruption, Pisan said Thailand must improve its business environment and ensure government agencies support rather than obstruct the private sector.

“I have a lot of faith in our business ability to do that business competently. But I'm not sure whether our agencies have acted in a way to support rather than to obstruct businesses,” he noted.

He argued that OECD accession should be linked with Thailand’s efforts to negotiate free-trade agreements and expand export markets.

“Meeting OECD standards would also enable Thailand to be very attractive for trading partners to want to come to do and conclude the FTA with Thailand,” Pisan said.

The Thai government is now aiming to complete the EU-Thailand FTA by the end of 2026 and pledging to complete the accession to the OECD as a full member by 2028. 

The EU is seeking commitments in areas including government procurement, competition and trade policy, he said, adding that Thailand’s desire to join the OECD would create additional pressure for the country to undertake reforms.

“We have to make change. We have to make the adjustment of trade policy,” Pisan said.

He identified trade competition as another area requiring urgent reform, particularly because of what he described as political interference in the work of Thailand’s Fair Trade Commission.

“In Thailand, the Fair Trade Commission had never penalised any company violating any fair competition policy. Entering OECD is a good idea in making sure that we will have a fair trade competition policy and implementation, free from political interference,” he said.

While acknowledging the benefits of OECD membership, Pisan said Thailand should focus on the substantive reforms required rather than simply meeting the government’s 2028 target.

He said accession could ultimately help improve Thailand’s regulatory standards, attract quality investment, strengthen its trade position and force government agencies to develop a more coordinated way of working.

Pisan Manawapt is former Thai ambassador to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and India. He also served as chief lead negotiator for the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA) from 2002 to 2006.