The OECD's work on the corporate governance of state owned assets falls under the remit of the Working Group on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices.  In 2002, the OECD Committee on Corporate Governance asked the Working Group to develop a set of non binding guidelines for State-Owned-Enterprises (SOEs), as a complementary instrument to the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

Based on and fully compatible with the Principles, they are explicitly oriented to issues that are specific to the corporate governance of SOEs. After extensive consultations, the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned-Enterprises were adopted by the OECD Council in 2005.