How to sell an SOE
I remember a microeconomics class where the professor asked us: “what has a negative price?” As we struggled to answer, the professor said: “garbage! We pay money to get rid…
‘Strategic’ SOEs bereft of strategic merits
“There is no such thing as a strategic SOE.” This statement by Finance Minister Aurangzeb is spot on. However, bureaucracy influences the leadership by suggesting numerous SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises) as…
Privatisation of SOEs: a focus on PIA
Pakistan’s economy is confronting numerous challenges like fiscal deficits, low savings, limited investment, low foreign exchange reserves, economic uncertainty, and rising external debt, expected to reach about $131.159 billion at…
SOEs: performance & accountability
The World Bank’s recent report, titled ‘Pakistan Development Update, fiscal impact of Federal State-Owned Enterprises’, highlights a significant improvement in our economy, attributed mainly to enhanced and better management strategies,…
SOEs in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are a common feature in the economic landscapes of developing countries such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The performance of these SOEs has been a topic of…
Loss-making SOEs must be privatized
The SOEs are required to be privatised. This compulsion is driven by no other reason than that going forward, no money will be available to continue financing their losses that…
SOE conundrum: To be, or not to be…
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have become a subject of heated debate in Pakistan, with conflicting opinions on their impact. Detractors argue that SOEs drain national resources through inefficiencies and misappropriation, while…
SOEs, fiscal discipline & reforms
Despite a wave of privatization in the last 3 decades, SOEs still contribute significantly to the economic growth of both developed and developing countries (Robinett 2006). For example, SOEs account…
SOEs: privatisation the only solution
Driven by the current ‘four-point must list of IMF’ to qualify for the next tranche of Fund’s lending in November this year, the incumbent government has picked up the settlement of…
The false narrative around SOEs
Selling state companies is a bad idea. But despite failing repeatedly in practice this idea has resurfaced in the 2023-24 budget proposals, which say that next year the government will…
