On May 18, 2026, Mr. Pakorn Nilprapunt, Deputy Prime Minister, led a delegation of representatives from relevant government agencies to participate in a Fact-Finding Mission meeting with officials from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Bangkok. This marks the beginning of the technical assessment process within the regulatory policy framework, which is the first policy area for which the OECD has traveled to collect data from Thai representatives.
The meeting was attended by OECD officials from the Regulatory Policy Division, including James Drummond, Deputy Head of the Regulatory Impact Analysis Group, and Supriya Trivedi, Policy Analyst. They gathered information on Thailand’s legal development and reform from representatives of the public, private, and civil sectors. The Thai delegation included Ms. Onfa Vejjajiva, Secretary-General of the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC), and Mr. Noppadon Periroek, Acting Secretary-General of the Office of the Council of State (OCS), as well as representatives from the Secretariat of the Cabinet, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council, and the Office of the Civil Service Commission.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated during the meeting that Thailand is facing various challenges, including climate change, an aging society, modern technology, and geopolitical volatility. These factors are shifting the global order and could affect public trust in the government if not addressed promptly. Consequently, the government prioritizes the OECD accession process as a tool to stimulate concrete national reforms in areas such as public sector restructuring, public service delivery, and the application of digital technology to enhance transparency, accountability, and national competitiveness.
The Secretary-General of the OPDC added that the OPDC has been driving digital government policy through the use of the central legal system, the Law Portal (law.go.th), to gather public opinions for legislative drafting. Efforts are also underway to push forward the Licensing Facilitation Act to encourage government agencies to utilize modern technology for efficient service delivery.
The Acting Secretary-General of the OCS noted that the OCS is ready to support the government’s policy on OECD membership while simultaneously studying and amending laws that hinder business operations. This includes monitoring reforms in anti-corruption and suppression, which is an issue the OECD emphasizes particularly.
This meeting represents Thailand’s first step in the technical assessment process and a significant starting point on the path to OECD membership. In the next stage, the OCS will present Thailand’s regulatory policy developments to the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) at its second annual meeting in November 2026. If the committee approves, it will mark Thailand’s first policy framework to be certified by an OECD committee as being in alignment with international standards.
(Source: Working Group of the Deputy Prime Minister)
