In revisiting the forty year history of reforms to China’s state-owned enterprises (SOE), the book assesses the experiences of this process of reform and scrutinizes how this has helped advance the country’s economy overall. The author finds that China’s SOE reform not only commits to institutional innovation within the corporation in terms of operating mechanisms, management structure, legal organization and the economic system of the enterprise; but that it is also underpinned by a series of policies that highlight an increasing market orientation. The measures have given rise to a benign interaction between enterprise reform and market development, while switching the SOE’s role from appendages of government organs under a planned economic system to more autonomous entities that integrate public ownership and the market economy. In this regard, SOE reform’s success in constructing a modern enterprise system serves as the micro-foundation and core of an improved socialist market economic system. The book will appeal to academics and students interested in political economy and the Chinese economy, with particular reference to SOE reform and the recent economic transition in China.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play significant roles in developing economies in Asia and SOE performance remains crucial for economy-wide productivity and growth. This book looks at SOEs in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, and Viet Nam, which together present a panoramic view of SOEs in the region. It also presents insights from the Republic of Korea on the evolving role of the public sector in various stages of development. It explores corporate governance challenges and how governments could reform SOEs to make them efficient drivers of the long-term productivity-induced growth essential to Asia's transition to high-income status.

The Nature, the Performance, and the Reform of State-owned Enterprises provides a detailed description of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China with respect to both efficiency and income distribution. It shows that state ownership in the form of SOEs does not use resources efficiently and has a poor record in income distribution. Moreover, SOEs are found to enjoy unfair advantages in their competition with other firms. To illustrate the point, the book presents data revealing how favored policies, monopolistic powers, and subsidies benefit SOEs. These advantages are worth several trillion yuans a year. It is a sad irony that such wealth of the people is used to beef up the revenues of the SOEs, making their accounts look much better than they should be.This book, with its rich empirical data and information, is an authoritative reference for researchers interested in SOEs. It is also a good read for students of social sciences and the public to learn more about SOEs.

Using a series of studies, this book shows that ownership structure plays a major role in the national economy as a whole. Inefficient State Owned Enterprises (SOE's) damage the development of private enterprises and overall economic growth in various ways. The policy implications are very clear: in order to achieve healthy and fast economic development, there must be a radical reform of SOEs. Moreover, the aim of the SOE reform is not just to highlight the enterprises’ efficiency, but also create favorable conditions for financial deregulation, elimination of market segmentation, weakened market monopoly, and balanced regional economic development. The book argues that SOE reform is pivotal to stimulating general economic reform and development in order for China to achieve a smooth transition to a mature market economy.

This book focuses on the nature and significance of China’s state enterprises which have undergone substantial changes since China’s economic liberalization in 1978. It argues that much of the criticism is based on mistaken premises, where even the term ‘state-owned enterprises’ is a misnomer given that the emphasis is much less on ownership than on control. Using numerous case studies, this book highlights the extent to which these enterprises have evolved in response to reforms, and provides an in-depth analysis of their role in China’s outward investment strategy in the “Belt and Road” initiative. This role speaks to their growing influence as China expands her global footprint.

Prior to the COVID-19 shock, the key challenge facing policymakers in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia region was how to generate strong, sustainable, job-rich, inclusive growth. Post-COVID-19, this challenge has only grown given the additional reduction in fiscal space due to the crisis and the increased need to support the recovery. The sizable state-owned enterprise (SOE) footprint in the region, together with its cost to the government, call for revisiting the SOE sector to help open fiscal space and look for growth opportunities.

This book analyzes state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which are still significant players in many Asian economies. They provide essential public services, build and operate key infrastructure, and are often reservoirs of public employment. Their characteristics and inherent competitive advantages as publicly owned enterprises allow them to play these critical roles. Their weaknesses in governance and inefficiencies in incentive structures, however, also often lead to poor performance. SOEs must be efficient, transparent, and accountable to level the playing field for private companies, secure the growth of a vibrant private sector, and achieve sustained and inclusive economic growth. This book analyzes the reform of SOEs in Asia, the results of which are mixed. The volume concludes that some key conditions generally need to be met for SOE reforms to be successful: national bureaucracies must have the capacity to implement the reforms, and adverse impacts on international trade and investment must be avoided.