'...very valuable for both policy-makers and researchers...' Professor Athar Hussain, Director, Development Economics Research Programme, STICERD, The London School of Economics and Political Science 'The really novel idea is to bring together the experience of three rather diverse countries and then to discuss Eastern Europe in the light of this experience. State holding companies are likely to play a major role in Eastern Europe over the next ten years or more but very little has been written on them and few of the people advising the East Europeans have any real knowledge about them.' Professor Robert Rowthorn, University of Cambridge '...rich and substantial...' Professor John Toye, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex '...most informative...The conclusions are appropriately restrained, well-balanced and wise...The emphasis on the differences between portfolio management and enterprise management is a distinction that East Europe will eventually have to learn.' Raymond Vernon, Emeritus Professor, John F.Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Large and poorly performing state-owned enterprises pose a problem for countries attempting to move away from government controls towards more liberal economic environments. Privatization is an unproven solution which is proving difficult to implement on a major scale. Intermediate solutions may therefore prove to be the way forward. This book focuses on one of these: the state holding company. It first discusses the state holding company as a managerial form, which permits decentralised public enterprise management, and offers a framework for its analysis. Then, drawing upon the experience of both developed and developing countries, it examines the extent to which the indirect state ownership of public enterprises through holding companies can contribute to transition processes. It shows that the experience of countries like Italy, Egypt and Algeria has direct relevance for institutional structures evolving in the newly transforming countries of Eastern Europe, which are struggling to find a balance between public enterprise ownership and efficiency.

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 Toolkit provides an overall framework with practical tools and information to help policymakers design and implement corporate governance reforms for state-owned enterprises. It concludes with guidance on managing the reform process, in particular how to prioritize and sequence reforms, build capacity, and engage with stakeholders.

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.

This publication gives a comparative review of corporate governance practices in relation to state-owned enterprises in OECD countries, including scale and organisation, board composition and functions, relationships with non-state shareholders, the role of stakeholders transparency and disclosure.

In Eastern Europe privatization is now a mass phenomenon. The authors propose a model of it by means of an illustration from the example of Poland, which envisages the free provision of shares in formerly public undertakings to employees and consumers, and the provision of corporate finance from foreign intermediaries. One danger that emerges is that of bureaucratization. On the broader canvas, mass privatization implies the reform of the whole system, the creation of a suitable economic infrastructure for a market economy and the institutions of corporate governance. The authors point out the need for a delicate balance between evolution - which may be too slow - and design - which brings the risk of more government involvement than it is able to manage. A chapter originating as a European Bank working paper explores the banking implications of setting up a totally new financial sector with interlocking classes of assets. The economic effects merge into politics as the role of the state is investigated. Teachers and graduate students of public/private sector economies, East European affairs; advisers to bankers or commercial companies with Eastern European interests.

China's breathtaking economic growth, has often led observers to assume that the country's economic system has been transformed into a capitalist economy dominated by private enterprise. Although China's reliance on private enterprise and market-based incentives has been growing, and the CCP's treatment of private enterprises and entrepreneurs has been changing, it would be a mistake to minimize the current role of the State and the CCP in shaping economic outcomes in China and beyond. The Chinese government and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) remain potent economic forces. Indeed, some of China's SOEs are among the largest firms in China and the world. They are major investors in foreign countries. They have been involved in some of the largest initial public offerings in recent years and remain the controlling owners of many major firms listed on Chinese and foreign stock exchanges.