past fifteen years, State Owned Enterprises (SOES) continue to occupy a central role in many economies in terms of value added relative to GDP employment, and investment. Yet the performance of SOEs has been largely disappointing with the negative impact on macro-economic stability. Inefficient public enterprises have undermined the operation of financial system, fuelled inflation, increased public debt while acting as an obstacle to private business.
In advanced economies world-wide and in virtually all economies in transition, the corporation is the defining characteristics of the modern industrial enterprises. The modern corporate form has evolved over centuries to become the most efficient institution through which large scale commercial activity in essence the transformation of inputs into outputs can be carried out. The focus of the analysis is on how SOEs might be reformed, i.e. structured, governed, operated and financed as modern corporations; what incentives are needed to achieve the goals of the reform program, and there may be systematic limits to SOEs reforms which do not address the role of competition, factor markets and increased private participation in corporate financial, management and ownership