Corporate governance of state-owned enterprises

The OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises are the leading global standard for the ownership and governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They give concrete guidance to help policy makers evaluate and improve the legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the ownership and governance of SOEs.

Adopted in 2005, they were revised in 2024 to reflect recent evolutions in the global marketplace, and ensure that SOEs contribute to sustainability, and economic security and resilience, by maintaining a global level playing field and high standards of integrity and business conduct. The Guidelines are complementary to the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Guidelines for State-Owned Enterprises. 

• Acces the OECD Recommendation on Guidelines of Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises
• Read more about the review
• Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices

• Dividend payments by state-owned enterprises: Policies and practices
• OECD Review of the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in Kazakhstan
• The Compliance Without Borders Handbook
• OECD Review of the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in Romania
• Remuneration of Boards of Directors and Executive Management in State-Owned Enterprises
• Climate change and low-carbon transition policies in state-owned enterprises

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, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine and Viet Nam
• Sectorial reviews: Ukraine electricity sector and Ukraine hydrocarbon sector

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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This Policy Maker’s Guide to Privatisation provides practical advice to newcomers on key stages of the process from inception to post-privatisation. With global privatisation activity trending upwards and expected to rise, this Guide can support policy makers in their decision making process in the years to come.

• A policy maker's guide to privatisation

• Privatisation and the broadening of ownership of state-owned enterprise: Stocktaking of national practices
• Broadening the ownership of SOEs: A comparison of governance practices

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