Colombia
This is a non-exhaustive world-wide list of government-owned companies. The paragraph that follows was paraphrased from a 1996 GAO report which investigated only the 20th-century American experience. The GAO report did not consider the potential use in the international forum of SOEs as extensions of a nation's foreign policy utensils. A government-owned corporation is a legal entity that undertakes commercial activities on behalf of an owner government. Their legal status varies from being a part of government to stock companies with a state as a regular stockholder. There is no standard definition of a government-owned corporation (GOC) or state-owned enterprise (SOE), although the two terms can be used interchangeably. The defining characteristics are that they have a distinct legal form and that they are established to operate in commercial affairs. While they may also have public policy objectives, GOCs should be differentiated from other forms of government agencies or state entities established to pursue purely non-financial objectives. [1]
In 2009, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan formed the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) as a "state owned enterprise" subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. By presidential decree, the APPF is mandated to replace all non-diplomatic private security companies by 20 March 2013 to become the sole provider of pay-for-service security contracts within Afghanistan. [2]
The Region of Wallonia owns:
State-owned enterprises are divided into public enterprises (empresa pública) and mixed-economy companies (sociedade de economia mista). The public enterprises are subdivided into two categories: individual – with its own assets and capital owned by the Union – and plural companies – whose assets are owned by multiple government agencies and the Union, which have the majority of the voting interest. Caixa Econômica Federal, Correios, Embrapa and BNDES and are examples of public enterprises. Mixed-economy companies are enterprises with the majority of stocks owned by the government, but that also have stocks owned by the private sector and usually have their shares traded on stock exchanges. Banco do Brasil, Petrobras, Sabesp, and Eletrobras are examples of mixed-economy companies.
Beginning in the 1990s, the central government of Brazil launched a privatization program inspired by the Washington Consensus. State-owned enterprises such as Vale do Rio Doce, Telebrás, CSN, and Usiminas (most of them mixed-economy companies) were transferred to the private sector as part of this policy.
Brazil State Owned Companies Fact Sheet / Download from the planejamento.gov.br website. [4]
In Canada, state-owned corporations are referred to as Crown corporations, indicating that an organization is established by law, owned by the sovereign (either in right of Canada or a province), and overseen by parliament and cabinet. Examples of federal Crown corporations include:
Ministers of the Crown often control the shares in such public corporations, while parliament both sets out the laws that create and bind Crown corporations and sets their annual budgets.
Foreign SOEs are welcome to invest in Canada: in fall 2013, British Columbia [5] [6] and Alberta [7] [8] [9] signed agreements overseas to promote foreign direct investment in Canada. The Investment Canada Act governs this area federally. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated in 2013 that the "government [needs] to exercise its judgement" over SOEs. [10]
Crown corporations of British Columbia include:
Saskatchewan has maintained the largest number of Crown corporations, including:
In Ontario:
In Quebec:
Privatization, or the selling of Crown corporations to private interests, has become common throughout Canada over the past 30 years. Petro-Canada, Canadian National Railway, and Air Canada are examples of former federal Crown corporations that have been privatized. Privatized provincial Crown corporations include Alberta Government Telephones (which merged with privately owned BC Tel to form Telus), BCRIC, Manitoba Telecom Services, Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Corporation and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.
After 1949, all business entities in the People's Republic of China were created and owned by the government. In the late 1980s, the government began to reform the state-owned enterprise, and during the 1990s and 2000s, many mid-sized and small sized state-owned enterprises were privatized and went public. There are a number of different corporate forms which result in a mixture of public and private capital. In PRC terminology, a state-owned enterprise refers to a particular corporate form, which is increasingly being replaced by the listed company.[ citation needed ] Some of the largest state-owned enterprises have been floated on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, but in actuality, the state maintains total control of these corporations, always holding majority interest and voting rights.[ citation needed ] State-owned enterprises are mostly governed by both local governments' SASAC and, in the central government, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council. However, some state-owned enterprise were governed by China Investment Corporation (and its domestic arm Central Huijin Investment), as well as under the governance of Ministry of Education for the university-run enterprises, or some financial institutes that were under the governance of the Ministry of Finance.[ citation needed ]
As of 2011, 35% of business activity and 43% of profits in the People's Republic of China resulted from companies in which the state owned a majority interest. Critics, such as The New York Times, have alleged that China's state-owned companies are a vehicle for corruption by the families of ruling party leaders who have sometimes amassed fortunes while managing them. [11]
As of October 2019 [update] China had more than 350 individual entries in the Government-owned companies of China category page.
In the postwar years, Hong Kong's colonial government operated under a laissez-faire economic philosophy called positive non-interventionism. Hence Crown corporations did not play as significant a role in the development of the territory as in many other British territories.[ citation needed ]
The MTR Corporation (MTR) was formed as a Crown corporation, mandated to operate under "prudent commercial principles", in 1975. The Kowloon-Canton Railway, operated under a government department, was corporatised in 1982 to imitate the success of MTR (see Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation). MTR was privatised in 2000 although the Hong Kong Government is still the majority shareholder. KCR was operationally merged with MTR in 2007.[ citation needed ]
Examples of present-day statutory bodies include the Airport Authority, responsible for running the Hong Kong International Airport, or the Housing Authority, which provides housing to about half of Hong Kong residents.[ citation needed ]
Municipal
Holding Company for Pharmaceuticals (Holdipharma)
Holding Company for Tourism and Hotels (HOTAC)
In India, state-owned enterprise is termed a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) or a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE). These companies are owned by the Union Government, or one of the many state or territorial governments, or both. The company equity needs to be majority owned by the government to be a PSU. Below are some Examples.
Companies owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finances:
State-owned enterprises in Japan are commonly divided into tokushu hōjin ( ja:特殊法人 , lit. "special legal person") and tokushu gaisha ( ja:特殊会社 , lit. "special company"). Tokushu hōjin are the Japanese equivalent to statutory corporations; tokushu gaisha are kabushiki gaisha owned wholly or majorly by the government.
Japan Post was reorganized into Japan Post Group in 2007 as a material step of the Japanese postal service privatization. It ceased to be wholly owned by the government on November 4, 2015 when the government listed 11% of its holdings on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Parts of the Japan Railways Group (JR) were formerly owned by the government. J-Power was also state-owned before being privatized.
Parastatals in Kenya, partly from a lack of expertise and endemic corruption, have largely inhibited economic development. In 1979, a presidential commission went as far as saying that they constituted "a serious threat to the economy", and, by 1989, they had still not furthered industrialization or fostered the development of a Black business class. [13]
Several Kenyan SOEs have been privatized since the 1980s, with mixed results. [14] [15]
There are many state-owned enterprises in South Korea.
New Zealanders commonly refer to their state-owned enterprises as "SOEs", or as "crown entities". Local government councils and similar authorities also set up locally controlled enterprises, such as water-supply companies and "local-authority trading enterprises" (LATEs) as separate corporations or as business units of the councils concerned.
Government-owned businesses designated as crown entities include:
New Zealand's state-owned enterprises have included:
State-owned enterprises which have undergone privatisation and subsequent renationalisation:
Pakistan has a large list of government owned companies called State owned entities (SOEs). These played an important role in the development of the business and industry in Pakistan, but recently they are considered responsible for fiscal difficulties of the government due to corruption and bad governance. These SOEs, roughly 190 in number, operate in a wide range of economic areas including energy, communication, transport, shipping, trading, and banking & finance. Some of the most common examples of crown companies in Pakistan are Pakistan State Oil, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, Pakistan International Airlines, and Pakistan Steel Mills.
In the Philippines, state-owned enterprises are known as government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs). They can range from the Social Security System (SSS) and the Philippine Coconut Authority with no counterparts in the private sector, to Land Bank of the Philippines, a wholly government-owned bank that competes with private banks. A number of GOCCs, especially those that were nationalized by president Ferdinand Marcos during his time as the leader of the Fourth Republic of the Philippines, were returned to the private sector by the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, as with Philippine Airlines (PAL), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Philippine National Bank (PNB), and ABS-CBN Corporation (where the frequencies and facilities used by Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) were returned to ABS-CBN in 1986 and the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center were fully recovered by ABS-CBN from People's Television Network (PTV) in 1992), or fully or partially privatized as with National Power Corporation (NPC/NAPOCOR), National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), and Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC).
The state of Romania owns a minority stake in:
Government-linked corporations play a substantial role in Singapore's domestic economy. These GLCs are partially or fully owned by a state-owned investment company, Temasek Holdings. As of November 2011, the top six Singapore-listed GLCs accounted for about 17% of total capitalization of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Notable GLCs include Singapore Airlines, SingTel, ST Engineering, and Mediacorp. [18]
Slovenia is an ex-Yugoslavian republic. As such, its economy was largely state-owned prior to dissolution of that federation. The state still owns many enterprises, such as the banks, which in turn own such businesses as supermarkets and newspapers. [19]
Spain has thousands of public companies owned by the central, regional and local administrations. This is a short list of some of the most relevant at national level:
There are two types. Government-owned companies are legally normal companies but mainly or fully national owned. They are expected to be funded by their sales. A big customer might be the government or a government agency. The other type is government agencies which might also do activities competing with private owned companies. They usually are funded by tax money but can also sell services. The government has tried to avoid having agencies doing commercial activities, by separating out areas that compete with private companies into government-owned companies, for example within road construction. The reason is both to avoid unfair competition, and a wish to have market economy instead of plan economy as much as possible. Based on the tradition of avoiding "ministerial rule", the government has avoided interfering with the business of the companies, and allowed them to go international.
The Government of Tanzania owns a number of commercial enterprises in the country via the Treasury Registrar. It wholly owns the following corporations unless indicated otherwise: [21]
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by a national or provincial government, by an executive order or an act of legislation, in order to earn profit for the government, control monopoly of the private sector entities, provide products and services to citizens at a lower price, implement government policies, and/or to deliver products & services to the remote locations of the country. The national government or provincial government has majority ownership over these state owned enterprises. These state owned enterprises are also known as public sector undertakings in some countries. Defining characteristics of SOEs are their distinct legal form and possession of financial goals and developmental objectives. SOEs are government entities established to pursue financial objectives and developmental goals.
A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares. Shareholders are able to transfer their shares to others without any effects to the continued existence of the company.
In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the liability of members is limited to the unpaid value of shares. In a company limited by guarantee, the liability of owners is limited to such amount as the owners may undertake to contribute to the assets of the company, in the event of being wound up. The former may be further divided in public companies and private companies. Who may become a member of a private limited company is restricted by law and by the company's rules. In contrast, anyone may buy shares in a public limited company.
A Publicly-owned company is the name given in Ireland to a state-owned enterprise, that is to say, a commercial business which is beneficially owned, either completely or majority, by the Irish Government. Each state-sponsored body has a sponsor Minister who acts as shareholder, either independently, or in conjunction with the Minister for Finance, who may also be a shareholder. State-sponsored bodies are often popularly called semi-state companies, a misnomer, since they are all (mostly) fully owned by the state, in addition not all of them are actually companies.
Instituto Nacional de Industria was a Spanish state-owned financing and industrial holding company established in Francoist Spain for the development of industry and social control. It was succeeded by the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) in 1995.
A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, but they are corporations owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the extent provided for in the creating legislation.
Nicaragua is a country in Central America with constitutional democracy with executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral branches of government. The President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government.
Crown corporations in Canada are government organizations with a mixture of commercial and public-policy objectives. They are directly and wholly owned by the Crown.
A state-owned enterpriseof China is a legal entity that undertakes commercial activities on behalf of an owner government.
China National Aviation Holding Corporation Limited, also known as Air China Group, is a Chinese state-owned enterprise which is the parent company of Air China and Air Macau. The company was formed on 11 October 2002 by the merger of Air China, China Southwest Airlines, and China National Aviation Corporation (Group) Limited.
In South Africa the Department of Public Enterprises is the shareholder representative of the South African Government with oversight responsibility for state-owned enterprises in key sectors. Some companies are not directly controlled by the Department of Public Enterprises, but by various other departments. Further, not all state owned entities are registered as companies.
In Australia the predominant term used for SOEs is government business enterprise (GBE). Various Australian states also have GBEs, especially with respect to the provision of water and sewerage, and many state-based GBEs were privatized in some states during the last decade of the twentieth century. Former Commonwealth SOEs include Telstra, established in the 1970s as Telecom Australia. Telstra, now Australia's largest telecommunications company, was privatised in 1997 by the Howard government. As of June 2010 Telstra owned a majority of the copper wire infrastructure in Australia and is pending sale to its former parent, the Australian government, for a non-binding amount of 11 billion Australian dollars, as ducts in the copper wire tunnels are needed to install the fiber optic cable. The Commonwealth Bank, as its name indicates, was also founded as public company before later being privatized.
GAO/GGD-96-14
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