The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises are a comprehensive code of business conduct. How do these Guidelines fit into private initiatives for corporate responsibility?
The governments adhering to the Guidelines consider them to a valuable tool to help businesses build on these intangible resources -- voluntary agreement and expertise -- in support of appropriate standards of business conduct. The Guidelines complement and support private initiatives for corporate responsibility. In particular, adhering governments will use the Guidelines' review and promotion processes as a forum to stimulate public debate on global business conduct in order to build public consensus in this area. The National Contact Points will use them to improve understanding of the meaning of corporate responsibility within national business communities and to encourage the development of the management expertise that permits norms for responsible conduct to be translated into firms' daily operations. The National Contact Points also offer a forum in which concerns about particular business behaviour and practices can be discussed among interested parties, including adhering governments. Here, the emphasis is not on judging companies but on promoting a real process of improvement in business conduct. For more information,