Lessons for privatizers
What a difference two years have made. In 1997 proceeds from selling state-owned enterprises (SOEs) worldwide hit a record $162 billion. Almost every government's budget plans included privatization and the process itself became a badge of membership to the community of modern, forward-thinking nations. Now though, botched and corrupted sell-offs in Russia, the Asian crisis and economic slowdowns elsewhere have put many sales on hold. "Privatization has essentially ground to a halt in Asia, Africa, and most of Latin America," says William Megginson, a leading academic expert on share issue privatization.
Some governments - notably in Russia and the Czech Republic - have even started to talk about re-nationalization. In Russia's case, Harvard's Jeffrey Sachs thinks that the argument is now compelling. "It would be a plus if Russia re-nationalized the oil and gas sector, because then the government could sell those companies for money," he says....
