This is a non-exhaustive world-wide list of government-owned companies. The paragraph that follows was paraphrased from a 1996 GAO report which investigated only the 20th-century American experience. The GAO report did not consider the potential use in the international forum of SOEs as extensions of a nation's foreign policy utensils. A government-owned corporation is a legal entity that undertakes commercial activities on behalf of an owner government. Their legal status varies from being a part of government to stock companies with a state as a regular stockholder. There is no standard definition of a government-owned corporation (GOC) or state-owned enterprise (SOE), although the two terms can be used interchangeably. The defining characteristics are that they have a distinct legal form and that they are established to operate in commercial affairs. While they may also have public policy objectives, GOCs should be differentiated from other forms of government agencies or state entities established to pursue purely non-financial objectives.[1]
- ^ Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Post Office and Civil Service, Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate - GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS - Profiles of Existing Government Corporations (PDF). United States General Accounting Office. December 1995. pp. 1–16.
GAO/GGD-96-14