Business start-up rates in OECD countries have generally risen since the crisis - particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom - but they remain below pre-2008 levels in many Euro area economies.

In 2014, many countries implemented the latest international guidelines for compiling FDI statistics. The new standards have resulted in significant changes in FDI statistics, including new measures of FDI at the global level.

SMEs form the vast majority of businesses in most countries and contribute strongly to employment and economic growth, but they face particular challenges, particularly as concerns access to finance. Governments have a range of policy levers, including tax policies, that can and should be used to support the growth and development of SMEs, according to a new OECD report.

The Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) is a comprehensive and systematic tool for improving investment conditions. The pocket edition of the PFI contains the full text of the 2015 update minus the supplemental questions and reference lists. Find the integral text and other tools online at www.oecd.org/investment/pfi.htm

Women entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised as a key source of employment creation and innovation, and for addressing inequalities.

This public consultation is being held to gather comments on the draft Chinese Due Diligence Guidelines for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains. They are intended to align Chinese company due diligence with international standards and allow for mutual recognition with existing international initiatives and legislations.

The workshop will discuss the first results of the OECD Secretariat’s work on integrating FDI statistics into the analysis of Global Value Chains (OECD-WTO Trade in Value Added Initiative) to better account for foreign ownership.

The OECD has produced assessments of country-specific investment strategies in G20 countries in order to improve the investment ecosystem, foster efficient infrastructure investment and support financing opportunities for SMEs. This booklet reproduces the highlights of these assessments which have been transmitted to G20 leaders for consideration at their Summit in November 2015..

This report on climate change disclosure in G20 countries takes stock of mandatory climate change reporting schemes in G20 countries and identifies commonalities and divergences between the various schemes.

Focused mainly on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this report takes stock of 5 years of implementation of national and international programmes and initiatives designed to operationalise the recommendations of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance on Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa.

Encouraging entrepreneurship among disadvantaged groups can help boost jobs and tackle social exclusion, according to a new joint report by the OECD and European Commission.

Immediate action is needed to address the challenge of excess global steel capacity, according to industry and government officials at the OECD’s Steel Committee meeting in Paris on 30 November and 1 December 2015.

This meeting will provide the opportunity to discuss the role of governments, international partners and businesses in promoting responsible mineral supply chains from conflict-affected and high-risk areas. Participants will learn first hand about international standards and approaches, and be able to ask questions to experts in supply chain due diligence implementation.

Achieving green growth requires ambitious transition management policies in key sectors such as energy, transport, water and agriculture. Provided that the pace of innovation in a number of these key areas is growing faster than ever before, the Forum examined how to foster the "next industrial revolution" by harnessing the potential of systems innovation policies to support green growth.

The news that companies in OECD economies are increasingly bringing manufacturing activities back home has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. But considerable disagreement exists about how important this trend actually is for economies in particular the number of jobs that reshoring is supposed to bring back.

Slowing growth in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is grabbing the headlines with some suggesting a third wave of the 2008 global financial crisis. While this topic deserves attention because of its global economic implications, there is insufficient analysis of firms in global production networks (GPNs), which were at the forefront of the economic transformation in PRC and the rest of East Asia, and lessons for latecomers to GPNs.

This update report by the IMF and the OECD was delivered to G20 in February 2016.

The more governments and firms understand the implications of new technologies for production, the better placed they will be to prepare for the risks, shape appropriate policies, and reap the benefits.

This OECD report lays an empirical foundation for structuring economic policies to facilitate Chile’s participation in global value chains and to maximise the associated benefits for national firms and workers.

The tourism industry in OECD countries continues to grow strongly despite economic weakness in advanced economies, and outperformed tourism globally in 2014. However, active, innovative and integrated policies are needed to ensure that tourism remains a competitive and sustainable sector, says OECD.

Paris, 14 March 2016: Organised by the OECD-hosted Freedom of Investment Round-table, this conference will explore how governments are balancing investor protection and how to improve balance through new institutions.

This paper examines the relationship between environmental policy and "green" innovation in shipbuilding.

Financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has turned the corner from the downswing seen during the global financial crisis, but overall credit conditions remain challenging and access to external finance continues to be much tighter for SMEs than larger firms, according to a new OECD report.

A High-Level Meeting on excess capacity and structural adjustment in the steel sector was convened on 18 April 2016, at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels, co-organised by the OECD and the Belgian government.

Imports of counterfeit and pirated goods are worth nearly half a trillion dollars a year, or around 2.5% of global imports, with US, Italian and French brands the hardest hit and many of the proceeds going to organised crime, according to a new report by the OECD and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office.

Not so long ago, “globalisation” was a favourite paradigm in international business. It was a trend that began in the late 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s, when corporate takeovers were the order of the day and multinational companies fixated on maximising short-term profits and boosting share prices. One approach was “global sourcing”, also called outsourcing or offshoring.

This paper provides new cross-country evidence on the links between national policies and the growth patterns of start-ups. In particular, it compares for the first time the heterogeneous effects of national policies on entrants and incumbents, within the same country, industry, and time period.

This report is the first of a series of assessments on Colombian gold supply chains and aims to develop an initial approach and analysis for how risks outlined in Annex II of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas are relevant in the Colombian context.

10-12 May, Paris: The 2016 forum focused on compliance and implementation of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, including how to maximise the positive impacts on livelihoods through due diligence; viable options for trade in artisanal and small-scale mined gold; and identifying and preventing the worst forms of child labour in the mineral supply chain.

For Chile, it is a great honour and opportunity to chair the 2016 OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. It is an opportunity to celebrate Chile’s first five years as a member of the OECD and is yet another demonstration of the increasing relevance of emerging and developing economies, which today account for more than half of world GDP.

This brochure looks at the corruption, labour, human rights and environmental risks associated with the organisation of large sporting events. It describes how OECD instruments and expertise in implementation of complex projects can help host governments, event organisers and their business partners ensure that the world of sport remains associated with the traditional values of excellence and fair play.

As part of continuing efforts to boost transparency by multinational enterprises (MNEs), Canada, Iceland, India, Israel, New Zealand and the People’s Republic of China signed today the Multilateral Competent Authority agreement for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports (“CbC MCAA”), bringing the total number of signatories to 39 countries. The signing ceremony took place in Beijing, China.

This year’s OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM), chaired by Chile, is devoted to productivity. Ministers will discuss what governments, firms and individuals can do to improve productivity with the aim of fostering inclusive growth.

The world has seen more than one industrial revolution and another one is already upon us. We should face it as optimists.

Despite nearly a decade of policy efforts, the global economy remains in the repair shop. The legacies of the crisis are still very much present: weak growth, persistently high unemployment in several countries, faltering trade and investment and a profound loss of public confidence and trust. Any prospect of a strong upturn in advanced or emerging economies has dimmed in the past year.

Four decades after their adoption, the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises have never been more relevant to ensuring that businesses behave responsibly, wherever they operate.

Advanced economies remain in the doldrums. People’s incomes are rising at a very low pace, especially in the lower half of the distribution. Two global trends–the slowdown in productivity and the rise in inequality–reflect the state of policy, and point to the challenges policymakers face to change prospects for their citizens and the global economy.

The purpose of the seminar is to provide the practical information about how to implement SIBs in Poland using international experiences. The seminar is addressed to the potential applicants interested in the implementation of SIB within the call for proposals planned to be launched by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Sound public policies grounded in evidence – and implemented effectively – will be crucial for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This document outlines four broad areas for future action for the OECD, highlighting what it could do more of – or do differently – to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. C/MIN(2016)6.

The theme of the 2016 Forum taking place in Paris on 3 June is "New Challenges and Innovative Partnerships in a Shifting World". Key issues on the agenda include redefining partnerships to support inclusive and sustainable growth, and innovative policies to increase productivity and tackle inequalities.

Further structural reforms are needed to help the business sector boost productivity growth and overcome the key challenges of sluggish investment in advanced economies and excess capacity in emerging economies, according to a new OECD report.

Shanghai, 9-10 July 2016: G20 Trade Ministers reinforced their "determination to promote inclusive, robust and sustainable trade and investment growth" with the adoption of the G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking.

The Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) is a non-prescriptive tool for improving investment policy for development. It helps governments to design and implement policy reforms to create a truly attractive, robust and competitive environment for domestic and foreign investment.

This report covers the activities undertaken to promote the effective implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by governments and National Contact Points from July 2014 to December 2015.

The global steel industry continues to face difficult conditions due to excess capacity, weak global demand and growing trade tensions, the OECD Steel Committee said after meeting this week. While global steel trade remains relatively robust, there has been a sharp increase in steel trade actions by governments, it said, noting that trade actions should respect international obligations.

17 September 2016, Washington DC - This event brought together legal practitioners and experts to focus on how international standards on responsible business conduct are impacting legal practice as well as how legal tools can be used to strengthen ethical business practices throughout global supply chains.

Co-organised by the OECD and the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the seminar focused on the policy implications of the increasingly interconnected global financial and economic system and the need for an open and orderly regime for capital flows in the context of the review of the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements.

Latin America and the Caribbean’s (LAC) GDP will shrink by between 0.9% and 1% in 2016, according to the latest estimates, the second consecutive year of negative growth and a rate of contraction the region has not seen since the early 1980s. According to the Latin American Economic Outlook 2017, the region should recover in 2017, but with modest GDP growth of between 1.5% and 2%, below expected growth in advanced economies.

Lifting many of the regulations stifling business competition in Greece would benefit both consumers, through lower prices, and firms, via higher turnover, according to the OECD.

Mayors and local leaders from around the world launched today a plan of action to help tackle inequality, boost job creation and harness economic development.