Reports

The new OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises provide an internationally agreed benchmark to help governments assess and improve the way they exercise their ownership functions in state-owned enterprises. Good corporate governance of state-owned enterprises is a key reform priority in many countries. Improved efficiency and better transparency in the state owned sector will result in considerable economic gains, especially in countries where state ownership is important. In addition, creating a level playing field for private and state-owned enterprises will encourage a sound and competitive business sector. The Guidelines, first adopted in 2005, provide a set of good practices on the legal and regulatory framework for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the professionalisation of the state ownership function and the corporate governance arrangements of SOEs. This new version of the recommendation was developed in the light of almost a decade of experiences with its implementation and a number of thematic and comparative studies, developed on the basis of the earlier version of the Guidelines, that showed the need for, and supported, their revision, including in areas such as disclosure and transparency, public-private competition, board practices and funding and financing of SOE.

This OECD Recommendation and its Companion Document provide guidance for all stakeholders on the economic and social prosperity dimensions of digital security risk. In an economic context in which the digital environment has become essential to growth and prosperity, well-being and inclusiveness, digital security risk should be considered with respect to the broader economic and social perspective, and its management integrated in stakeholders’ decision making processes.

This report provides an overview of frameworks and experience in Latin America and internationally in dealing with the challenges associated with corporate governance of company groups. It describes their economic rationale, benefits and relevance in Latin America, and how they are defined, overseen and regulated. It also delves into some of the risks and more specific challenges involved in ensuring protection of minority shareholder rights and managing or minimising conflicts of interest within groups. It notes the rising importance of Latin American-based multinational company groups. Finally, it reviews existing international and regional guidance on corporate governance of company groups before assessing the more specific policy options and challenges in the region, and describing the conclusions reached by the Latin American Corporate Governance Roundtable and Task Force on Company Groups based on this report’s findings. Country-specific chapters provide more specific descriptions of the frameworks in place for corporate governance of company groups in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

This report reviews the rationales offered by national governments for including or maintaining certain corporate assets in state ownership. Drawing from responses from 24 countries to a questionnaire based on the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (the “Guidelines”), the report aims to provide guidance to authorities seeking to reform or review their ownership policies. It does so, first, by providing provides an inventory of national practices regarding the application of the Guidelines recommendation that governments should develop and issue an ownership policy that defines the overall objectives of state ownership, the state’s role in the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and how it will implement its ownership policy. Second, the report illustrates how the state enterprise ownership policy is applied in situations where new SOEs are created, or when the state decides to terminate its enterprise ownership. The report was reviewed by the OECD Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices, which oversees implementation of the Guidelines, and is current as of October 2014.