Taxpayers could be asked to underwrite business ventures into volatile regional nations, under a recommendation by the government’s special envoy for South-East Asia to help bolster “underweight” and “stagnant” two-way trade and investment by 2040.

The suggestion the government examines the feasibility of “political risk insurance” is one of 75 recommendations contained in a report by Nicholas Moore, a former chief executive of Macquarie Group, who was asked in November last year by Anthony Albanese to develop a new economic strategy for the rapidly growing region.