WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama pressed 20 corporate chief executives Wednesday to suggest policies that would spur them to "start investing in job creating enterprises."
The private meeting at Blair House, across the street from the White House, was part of an administration effort to repair relations with corporate America, which have been battered by disagreements over policy and presidential rhetoric.
Corporate CEOs have opposed the administration's health-care overhaul, efforts to tighten regulations and moves to increase taxes on overseas revenue.
The White House has been pursuing a charm offensive with the biggest U.S. employers in recent weeks, hoping to convince them to plow some of the $2 trillion in cash they are sitting on into expansion and hiring in the U.S.
The invited CEOs have frequently visited the White House in the past and many serve as presidential advisers. The group convened in the morning and worked through lunch, where chicken and fish were served. The meeting ended about 2 p.m. and the executives were herded into a series of TV interviews orchestrated by the White House.
Neither administration officials nor several attendees offered examples of specific advice provided to the president, or concrete proposals from the White House.
Robert Wolf of UBS said that innovation, trade and exports, and education and job training occupied much of the discussion. He said the group agreed to assign chief executives to task forces covering those issues in coming weeks, as well as infrastructure, energy, and corporate taxation, a flash point for multinationals, whose executives have fought administration proposals to raise taxes on overseas earnings.
"It was very clear that a task force was needed to really look at corporate tax policy and where there can be some common ground, a neutral sum game both on revenues and tax implications," Mr. Wolf said.
Motorola Inc. Chief Executive Greg Brown said growing corporate profits and business-friendly moves by the administration—chiefly, its work to move the South Korea free trade agreement—contributed to a "constructive" atmosphere.
"Okay, now what?" Mr. Brown said on MSNBC. "Let's continue on with the free trade agreements, whether it's Columbia, Panama, the trans-Pacific partnership."
Business leaders have complained they have been discouraged from new investments by the Obama administration's efforts to step up regulation in various areas, and by uncertainty over tax policy.
But some of them join economists in saying slack demand has been a bigger reason for business's reluctance to invest in the U.S.
A quarterly survey of 140 chief executives released by the Business Roundtable this week offered some cause for optimism, with 80% of respondents saying they expected sales to increase in the next six months, compared with 66% in last quarter's survey.
Nearly half of the executives—45%—expected to hire within the next six months, compared with 31% who said that last quarter.
Republicans dismissed the meeting as a "nothingburger."
"The issue isn't whether President Obama is accessible to business leaders, but rather, whether he's listening, and then acting, on their advice," House Republican leader John Boehner said in a statement.
The Korea agreement, Mr. Boehner said, is "all well and good, except the president has not pushed Congress to act on similar pacts with Colombia and Panama despite multiple promises to do just that."
—Jared Favole contributed to this article.Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com
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