Corporate governance of state-owned enterprises

The OECD works to ensure that state-owned enterprises operate in a sound competitive and regulatory environment to promote efficient and open markets at the domestic and international level. It advances national reforms in countries across the world, guided by the internationally-agreed OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises.

The OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises give concrete advice to countries on how to manage more effectively their responsibilities as company owners, thus helping to make state-owned enterprises more competitive, efficient and transparent. First developed in 2005, the Guidelines were updated in 2015 to take into account developments since their adoption and to reflect the experiences of the growing number of countries that have taken steps to implement them. The updated Guidelines were adopted by the OECD in July 2015 as part of a Recommmendation of the Council. 

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• Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices
• 2015 Guidelines revision process
• Legal text: Recommendation of the OECD Council
• Corporate Governance Principles

• OECD Review of the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in Viet Nam
• Review of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance
• Remuneration of Boards of Directors and Executive Management in State-Owned Enterprises
• Climate change and low-carbon transition policies in state-owned enterprises
• Monitoring the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises: Good Practice Guide for Annual Aggregate Reporting

OECD country reviews evaluate the corporate governance and regulatory framework for SOEs in individual countries. The reviews provide a quantitative sectoral overview of national SOE sectors and examine the state ownership policy, the institutional arrangements, the regulatory frameworks for competition between SOEs and private enterprises, the equitable treatment of shareholders, policies for stakeholder relations and the effectiveness and independence of SOE boards of directors.  

• Country reviews: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Viet Nam
• Sectorial reviews: Ukraine electricity sector and Ukraine hydrocarbon sector

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The OECD Guidelines on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in SOEs are the first international instrument to offer the state, in its role as an enterprise owner, support in fighting corruption and promoting integrity in SOEs. The Guidelines can help states to ensure that owners exemplify integrity in their conduct, that ownership arrangements are conducive to integrity, that SOEs adhere to good practices at the SOE level and that accountability mechanisms are integral to SOE sectors.

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Competitive neutrality means that state-owned and private businesses compete on a level playing field. While the principle of competitive neutrality is gaining wide support around the world, obtaining it in practice is a much more difficult question. The OECD is engaged in multiple projects to assist policy makers in designing, adopting, and implementing appropriate policies.

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SOEs are important elements of many national economies and increasingly active internationally. The OECD has the most comprehensive and internationally comparable dataset currently available on the size, sectoral distribution and corporate forms of national SOE sectors in 40 countries.

• The size and sectoral distribution of state-owned enterprises

• Asia
• Latin America
• Middle East and North Africa
• Southern Africa
• Global Knowledge Sharing Network