Authors : Abrar Fahad Almai, Mohamed Fathy and Amr Gamaleldin Awad
Abstract: Reforming State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) became a core element of economic reform in many countries, especially in the transitional economy. Many developed and developing countries have launched reform programs to reform SOEs using different strategies, including restructuring, privatization, labor policy and promoting corporate governance. In order to benefit from the global experiences in reforming SOEs, we attempt in this study to extract SOEs reform lessons by examining three major international experiences in the reform of SOEs, namely China, Korea and Brazil. The paper plan to use comparative method and descriptive-analytical approach, through reviewing the literature, in order to extract the lessons learned from experiences of the three countries. The study concluded that China has been more selective in implementing the privatization program and that selling SOEs to their employees by providing financial and credit facilities for them, under cooperatives system has contributed to accepting the privatization process and mitigating its negative social impacts. The experience of South Korea has shown the importance of strict application of governance masseurs, especially with regard to internal and external audits. Korean reforms also introduced plans for the financial health of SOEs which promoted governance and strict control over SOEs and improved their performance. As for Brazil, the most important characteristic of its experience is utilizing information technology and designing databases for SOEs. This study is important for scholars, researchers and policy makers in the governments which concern to learn and benefit from the international experiences in reforming state-owned enterprises.
Abrar Fahad Almai, Mohamed Fathy and Amr Gamaleldin Awad, 2021. Reforming State-Owned Enterprises, Lessons from three International Experiences. International Business Management, 15: 229-240.