Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) have been at the forefront of changes in the global economy, as transportation and communication costs have declined, technologies have facilitated more complex operations, and trade and investment barriers have lessened over the last few decades. Understanding the structure and behaviour of MNEs is fundamental to the production of consistent global statistics. This information facilitates analysis of the impact of globalisation on value chains and provides transparency to the public with regards to large enterprises operating in their region, particularly in regard to the international efforts to ensure that these firms pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate and generate profits^[1]. 

The Multinational Enterprise Information Platform is a joint initiative of OECD and UNSD to provide an understanding of the structure of MNEs and related material. It comprises two core registers: 

• The Global Register (xlsx): Covering the structure of the 500 largest MNEs by providing information on the MNE’s head, their subsidiaries, their location and their ownership structure when available.           

• The Digital Register (xlsx): Covering the web presence of MNEs around the world by providing a list of connected websites and their relative importance determined by the number of visitors and the importance of links to their website (page rank).

The Multinational Enterprise Information Platform is built solely from publicly available information, utilising advanced data processing and handling to develop a unique source of information on MNEs. The dataset includes information to link subsidiaries to key information provided by OpenCorporates, GLEIF and PermID, allowing users to develop further insights.  

The first release of the Multinational Enterprise Information Platform covers data as of 31^st December 2021 and will be updated annually. Explorations to improve the timeliness, frequency and coverage of the information are in progress.
   

Visualise the database using the dashboard:

 

Further reading

> Unlocking new insights into multinational enterprises with the power of open-source data, OECD Statistics Blog article, 13 May 2023

 

For further information, please contact:

> The OECD Statistics and Data Directorate      > The UNSD, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics

The Platform relies on a number of openly licenced datasets. Both organisations are grateful for the contributions of:
> CommonCrawl > OpenStreetMap > CorpWatch > PeopleDataLabs > Crunchbase	> PermID > GDELT > Sectigo (crt.sh) > GLEIF > Tranco	> OpenCorporates > WebDataCommons > OpenOwnership > WikiData

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1. International community strikes a ground-breaking tax deal for the digital age