On June 26, 1990 , the Ministry of Industry proposed to the cabinet to improve the status of the Division of Industrial Economics, which was under the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Industry, to be an office equivalent to a department so that it can increase its efficiency of policy and planning implementation.
The cabinet passed resolutions establishing the Office of Industrial Economics according to the Transference Act of 1991, transferring parts of responsibilities and management of the Office of Permanent Secretary for Industry (Division of Industrial Economics and Office of Basic Industry Development) to combine with the newly established office.
The passed resolutions were issued on September 4, 1991 in the government gazette of Vol. 108, Section 156, and they were effective on the following day.
So OIE deemed that its establishment date was September 5, 1991.  
OIE has initially seven scopes of responsibilities as follows :
1. Recommending industrial development policies, guidelines and measures, including preparing industrial development plans of the country.
2. Proposing policies, defining positions and cooperation guidelines on international industrial economics, including attending conferences and negotiating with international industrial organizations and agencies.
3. Studying and analyzing industrial economics as the basic information for policy making and planning of industrial development as well as problems solving or development of industrial technology.
4. Analyzing Researching, forecasting and warning of industrial economics.
5. Coordinating, accelerating, following up and evaluating the performance results of industrial development.
6. Setting up policies on industrial information surveys, storage and use, including preparing industrial indexes and acting as an information technology center of industrial economics.
7. Performing other duties which are required by law as authorities of the OIE, or which are assigned by the Ministry of Industry or the cabinet.