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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
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.
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]
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.
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:
ADIF: (100%) construction and management of rail infrastructure
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]
