The journey to the establishment of the UNCTC began on 28 July 1972, when the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) unanimously adopted Resolution 1721 (LIII) calling for the Secretary-General to appoint a Group of Eminent Persons to study "the role of multinational corporations and their impact on the process of development, especially that of developing countries, and also their implications for international relations”.

The UN Secretariat's Department of Economic and Social Affairs then produced a primer to assist with the Group of Eminent Persons’ deliberations in 1973, titled ‘Multinational corporations in world development’.

The Group of Eminent Persons held public hearings in September and November 1973. A summary of those hearings can be found here. The Group published its final report, ‘The impact of multinational corporations on development and on international relations’ in 1974. The report included a recommendation for the establishment of an ‘information and research centre on multinational corporations’.

The UN Centre on Transnational Corporations was then established on 2 August 1974 by Resolution 1908 (LVII) of ECOSOC.