Corporate governance of state-owned enterprises is a major challenge in many economies. These OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises serves as an international benchmark to help governments assess and improve the way they exercise ownership of these enterprise.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) place a significant and unsustainable strain on the economies of Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. They absorb large amounts of scarce capital on which they provide very low returns. This study reveals the core levers of SOE reform and the rapid progress that can be made in implementing them where the political will to do so exists. While the study focuses on three countries that are heavily involved in SOE reform and have broadly similar SOE portfolios and legislative frameworks, the core lessons from their experience are applicable throughout the Pacific region.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed risk allocation of public-private-partnerships (PPPs) under a stress test: risks that seemed reasonable for the private sector to take mere months ago may no longer be acceptable today. As PPP projects suffer from supply chain disruptions and lower demand, the private sector will start to redefine bankability and seek to transfer more risks to the government. To that end, there is likely increased demand for government guarantees.