A state-owned enterprise ( SOE ) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goods at lower prices, implement government policies, or serve remote areas where private businesses are scarce. The government typically holds full or majority ownership and oversees operations. SOEs have a distinct legal structure, with financial and developmental goals, like making services more accessible while earning profit (such as a state railway). They can be considered as government-affiliated entities designed to meet commercial and state capitalist objectives.
32-1301: South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) is a public sector undertaking (PSU) controlled by the Government of Bihar. It was formed on 1 November 2012 under section 14 of the Electricity Act of 2003, and is the successor to the erstwhile Bihar State Electricity Board . SBPDCL has an infrastructure facility in its operating area with 512 power system stabilizers, 705 power transformers, 139 33 kV feeders, 825 11 kV feeders and around 29,668 distribution transformers of various capacities. SBPDCL encompasses an area of 17 districts of southern Bihar further divided into 36 divisions viz., Ara , Aurangabad , Banka , Bankipore , Barbigha , Barh , Barahiya , Bhabua , Bihar Sharif , Bikramganj , Bakhtiyarpur , Buxar , Dakbungalow, Daudnagar , Dehri , Dumraon , Fatuha , Gaya district , Gulzarbagh , Hilsa , Jehanabad , Jamalpur , Jamui , Jhajha , Kankarbagh -II (Ram Krishna Nagar), Lakhisarai , Makhdumpur , Maner , Masaurhi , Mokama , Munger , Naugachia , Nawada , Patliputra , Patna City , Rajendra Nagar, Patna , Rajgir , Sasaram , Sheikhpura , Sherghati , Sultanganj , Warisaliganj . Catering to
64-625: A large scale restructuring of state enterprises starting in the economic reforms initiated in 1978 , where state enterprises were granted greater autonomy in their operations from economy-wide state planning. This culminated in a massive wave of corporatization between 1992 and 2002 with the adoption of a market economy and the opening of the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges. Corporatization involved restructuring state enterprises to operate as commercial and market entities while retaining state ownership or majority state ownership. Some argue that
96-661: A public objective. For that reason, SOEs primarily operate in the domain of infrastructure (e.g., railway companies), strategic goods and services (e.g., postal services, arms manufacturing and procurement), natural resources and energy (e.g., nuclear facilities, alternative energy delivery), politically sensitive business, broadcasting, banking, demerit goods (e.g., alcoholic beverages ), and merit goods (healthcare). SOEs can also help foster industries that are "considered economically desirable and that would otherwise not be developed through private investments". When nascent or 'infant' industries have difficulty getting investments from
128-495: A regular enterprise, state-owned enterprises are typically expected to be less efficient due to political interference, but unlike profit-driven enterprises they are more likely to focus on government objectives. In Eastern Europe and Western Europe , there was a massive nationalization throughout the 20th century, especially after World War II . In the Eastern Bloc , countries adopted very similar policies and models to
160-399: A step towards the creation of hybrid forms of organization, such as institutional public-private partnerships or inter-municipal service organizations. Corporatization is also a means to alleviate fiscal stress, as corporations can become standalone organizations that do not count towards municipalities' budgets. Corporatization of state enterprises and collectively owned enterprises
192-562: Is a viable argument for SOEs is debated. SOEs are also frequently employed in areas where the government wants to levy user fees , but finds it politically difficult to introduce new taxation. Next, SOEs can be used to improve efficiency of public service delivery or as a step towards (partial) privatization or hybridization. SOEs can also be a means to alleviate fiscal stress, as SOEs may not count towards states' budgets. Compared to government bureaucracy, state owned enterprises might be beneficial because they reduce politicians' influence over
224-764: Is approximately 70% of total employment. State-owned enterprises are thus a major factor behind Belarus's high employment rate and a source of stable employment. In most OPEC countries, the governments own the oil companies operating on their soil. A notable example is the Saudi Arabian national oil company , Saudi Aramco , which the Saudi government bought in 1988, changing its name from Arabian American Oil Company to Saudi Arabian Oil Company. The Saudi government also owns and operates Saudi Arabian Airlines , and owns 70% of SABIC as well as many other companies. China's state-owned enterprises are owned and managed by
256-469: Is contestable under what circumstances a SOE qualifies as "owned" by a state (SOEs can be fully owned or partially owned; it is difficult to determine categorically what level of state ownership would qualify an entity to be considered as state-owned since governments can also own regular stock , without implying any special interference). Finally, the term "enterprise" is challenged, as it implies statutes in private law which may not always be present, and so
288-410: Is externalization. The effect of corporatization has been to convert state departments (or municipal services) into public companies and interpose commercial boards of directors between the shareholding ministers / city council and the management of the enterprises. Such externalization creates legal and managerial autonomy from politicians, which could potentially increase efficiency, as it safeguards
320-617: Is highlighted in the predominant local terminology, with SOEs in Canada referred to as a " Crown corporation ", and in New Zealand as a " Crown entity ". The term " government-linked company " (GLC) is sometimes used, for example in Malaysia , to refer to private or public (listed on a stock exchange) corporate entities in which the government acquires a stake using a holding company . The two main definitions of GLCs are dependent on
352-491: Is to be distinguished from privatization (the former involves publicly owned corporations, the latter privately owned ones), once a service has been corporatised it is often relatively easy to privatise or part-privatise it, for example by selling some or all of the company's shares via the stock market. In some cases (e.g. the Netherlands in regard to water supply) there are laws to prevent this. Corporatization also can be
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#1732786993034384-715: The State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) . China's state-owned enterprises generally own and operate public services, resource extraction or defense. As of 2017 , China has more SOEs than any other country, and the most SOEs among large national companies. China's SOEs perform functions such as: contributing to central and local governments revenues through dividends and taxes, supporting urban employment, keeping key input prices low, channeling capital towards targeted industries and technologies, supporting sub-national redistribution to poorer interior and western provinces, and aiding
416-823: The Minister of Finance II, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit, the Chief Secretary to the Government, Secretary General of Treasury and the heads of each of the GLICs (the Employees Provident Fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad , Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (the armed forces pension fund), Lembaga Tabung Haji and Permodalan Nasional Berhad . Khazanah Nasional Berhad provided
448-1019: The USSR. Governments in Western Europe, both left and right of centre, saw state intervention as necessary to rebuild economies shattered by war. Government control over natural monopolies like industry was the norm. Typical sectors included telephones , electric power , fossil fuels , iron ore , railways , airlines , media , postal services , banks , and water . Many large industrial corporations were also nationalized or created as government corporations, including, among many others: British Steel Corporation , Equinor , and Águas de Portugal . A state-run enterprise may operate differently from an ordinary limited liability corporation. For example, in Finland, state-run enterprises ( liikelaitos ) are governed by separate laws. Even though responsible for their own finances, they cannot be declared bankrupt ;
480-412: The adoption and application of business management practices and the separation of ownership from management through the creation of a joint-stock or shareholding structure for the organization. The result of corporatization is the creation of state-owned corporations (or corporations at other government levels, such as municipally owned corporations ) where the government retains a majority ownership of
512-454: The corporation's stock. Corporatization is undertaken to improve efficiency of an organization, to commercialize its operations, to introduce corporate and business management techniques to public functions, or as a precursor to partial or full privatization . The move towards neoliberal economic reform and New Public Management public service reform in the 1980s led to privatization of public functions in many countries. Corporatization
544-412: The firm from political exploitation. However, corporatization can also fail to bring efficiency (or cause inefficiency), because this autonomy reduces the government's ability to monitor its management. Whether corporatization is beneficial may depend on the nature of the service that is corporatized, where autonomy may be less beneficial for more politicized and complex services. Although corporatization
576-507: The form of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The Malaysian government launched a GLC Transformation Programme for its linked companies and linked investment companies ("GLICs") on 29 July 2005, aiming over a ten-year period to transform these businesses "into high-performing entities". The Putrajaya Committee on GLC High Performance ("PCG"), which oversaw this programme, was chaired by the Prime Minister , and membership included
608-412: The leading application of the incomplete contract theory to the issue of state-owned enterprises. These authors compare a situation in which the government is in control of a firm to a situation in which a private manager is in control. The manager can invest to come up with cost-reducing and quality-enhancing innovations. The government and the manager bargain over the implementation of the innovations. If
640-592: The negotiations fail, the owner can decide about the implementation. It turns out that when cost-reducing innovations do not harm quality significantly, then private firms are to be preferred. Yet, when cost-reductions may strongly reduce quality, state-owned enterprises are superior. Hoppe and Schmitz (2010) have extended this theory in order to allow for a richer set of governance structures, including different forms of public-private partnerships . SOEs are common with natural monopolies , because they allow capturing economies of scale while they can simultaneously achieve
672-441: The power requirements of around 1.8 million consumers in 2012. Government-owned corporation The terminology around the term state-owned enterprise is murky. All three words in the term are challenged and subject to interpretation. First, it is debatable what the term "state" implies (e.g., it is unclear whether municipally owned corporations and enterprises held by regional public bodies are considered state-owned). Next, it
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#1732786993034704-399: The private sector (perhaps because the good that is being produced requires very risky investments, when patenting is difficult, or when spillover effects exist), the government can help these industries get on the market with positive economic effects. However, the government cannot necessarily predict which industries would qualify as such 'infant industries', and so the extent to which this
736-428: The proportion of the corporate entity a government owns. One definition purports that a company is classified as a GLC if a government owns an effective controlling interest (more than 50%), while the second definition suggests that any corporate entity that has a government as a shareholder is a GLC. The act of turning a part of government bureaucracy into a SOE is called corporatization . In economic theory ,
768-451: The question of whether a firm should be owned by the state or by the private sector is studied in the theory of incomplete contracts developed by Oliver Hart and his co-authors. In a world in which complete contracts were feasible, ownership would not matter because the same incentive structure that prevails under one ownership structure could be replicated under the other ownership structure. Hart, Shleifer, and Vishny (1997) have developed
800-660: The secretariat to the PCG and managed the implementation of the programme, which was completed in 2015. As of 2024, Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is the most profitable state-owned enterprise in the Philippines. It is the third largest contributor to government revenues, following taxes and customs. Corporatization Corporatization is the process of transforming and restructuring state assets, government agencies, public organizations, or municipal organizations into corporations . It involves
832-469: The service. Conversely, they might be detrimental because they reduce oversight and increase transaction costs (such as monitoring costs, i.e., it is more difficult and costly to govern and regulate an autonomous SOE than it is the public bureaucracy). Evidence suggests that existing SOEs are typically more efficient than government bureaucracy, but that this benefit diminishes as services get more technical and have less overt public objectives. Compared to
864-465: The state answers for the liabilities. Stocks of the corporation are not sold and loans have to be government-approved, as they are government liabilities. State-owned enterprises are a major component of the economy of Belarus . The Belarusian state-owned economy includes enterprises that are fully state-owned, as well as others which are joint-stock companies with partial ownership by the state. Employment in state-owned or state-controlled enterprises
896-497: The state's response to natural disasters, financial crises and social instability. China's SOEs are at the forefront of global seaport-building, and most new ports constructed by them are done within the auspices of the Belt and Road Initiative . As of at least 2024, an Ethiopian SOE is Africa's largest and most profitable airline, as well as Ethiopia's largest earner of foreign exchange. In India , government enterprises exist in
928-542: The term "corporations" is frequently used instead. Thus, SOEs are known under many other terms: state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, government-owned company, government controlled company, government controlled enterprise, government-owned corporation, government-sponsored enterprise , commercial government agency, state-privatised industry public sector undertaking, or parastatal, among others. In some Commonwealth realms , ownership by The Crown
960-408: The trend towards corporatization has sped up due to the financial crisis, although there is evidence that there has been a trend towards corporatization since at least the start of the century. Corporatization can be used to improve efficiency of public service delivery (with mixed successes), as a step towards (partial) privatization, or to alleviate fiscal stress. A key purpose of corporatization
992-529: Was a major component of the economic restructuring program of formerly communist nations, most notably the People's Republic of China. China's contemporary socialist market economy is based on a corporatized state sector where state companies are owned by the central government but managed in a semi-autonomous fashion. Corporatization has also been used in New Zealand and most states of Australia in
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1024-470: Was seen as a half-way house on the road to privatization. These state-owned enterprises are organized in the same manner as private corporations, with the difference that the company's shares remain in the ownership of the state and are not traded on the stock market . Corporatization is today often seen as an end in itself in order to introduce autonomy in organizations, hoping that this brings efficiency gains. The People's Republic of China implemented
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