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37-523: Forestry Tasmania trades as Sustainable Timber Tasmania but is still legally called Forestry Tasmania. It is a government business enterprise wholly owned by the Government of Tasmania , Australia . It is responsible for the management of public production forest in Tasmania , which is about 800,000 hectares of crown land (public land) that is classified as 'permanent timber production zone'. The company

74-661: A public objective. For that reason, SOEs primarily operate in the domain of infrastructure (e.g., railway companies), strategic goods and services (e.g., postal services, arms manufacturing and procurement), natural resources and energy (e.g., nuclear facilities, alternative energy delivery), politically sensitive business, broadcasting, banking, demerit goods (e.g., alcoholic beverages ), and merit goods (healthcare). SOEs can also help foster industries that are "considered economically desirable and that would otherwise not be developed through private investments". When nascent or 'infant' industries have difficulty getting investments from

111-489: A regular enterprise, state-owned enterprises are typically expected to be less efficient due to political interference, but unlike profit-driven enterprises they are more likely to focus on government objectives. In Eastern Europe and Western Europe , there was a massive nationalization throughout the 20th century, especially after World War II . In the Eastern Bloc , countries adopted very similar policies and models to

148-512: Is a type of financial services corporation created by the United States Congress . Their intended function is to enhance the flow of credit to targeted sectors of the economy, to make those segments of the capital market more efficient and transparent, and to reduce the risk to investors and other suppliers of capital. The desired effect of the GSEs is to enhance the availability and reduce

185-562: Is a viable argument for SOEs is debated. SOEs are also frequently employed in areas where the government wants to levy user fees , but finds it politically difficult to introduce new taxation. Next, SOEs can be used to improve efficiency of public service delivery or as a step towards (partial) privatization or hybridization. SOEs can also be a means to alleviate fiscal stress, as SOEs may not count towards states' budgets. Compared to government bureaucracy, state owned enterprises might be beneficial because they reduce politicians' influence over

222-753: Is approximately 70% of total employment. State-owned enterprises are thus a major factor behind Belarus's high employment rate and a source of stable employment. In most OPEC countries, the governments own the oil companies operating on their soil. A notable example is the Saudi Arabian national oil company , Saudi Aramco , which the Saudi government bought in 1988, changing its name from Arabian American Oil Company to Saudi Arabian Oil Company. The Saudi government also owns and operates Saudi Arabian Airlines , and owns 70% of SABIC as well as many other companies. China's state-owned enterprises are owned and managed by

259-602: Is highlighted in the predominant local terminology, with SOEs in Canada referred to as a " Crown corporation ", and in New Zealand as a " Crown entity ". The term " government-linked company " (GLC) is sometimes used, for example in Malaysia , to refer to private or public (listed on a stock exchange) corporate entities in which the government acquires a stake using a holding company . The two main definitions of GLCs are dependent on

296-520: Is primarily for the purposes of wood production; specifically, activities undertaken include native forest harvesting/reforestation, plantation harvesting, road and quarry construction. 'Permanent timber production zone land' is accessible to the public and normal road rules apply on the Forestry Tasmania managed roads. Roads may be closed for safety or forest operations. Camping is generally allowed except when signed 'no camping'. A portion of

333-489: Is unclear whether municipally owned corporations and enterprises held by regional public bodies are considered state-owned). Next, it is contestable under what circumstances a SOE qualifies as "owned" by a state (SOEs can be fully owned or partially owned; it is difficult to determine categorically what level of state ownership would qualify an entity to be considered as state-owned since governments can also own regular stock , without implying any special interference). Finally,

370-703: The State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) . China's state-owned enterprises generally own and operate public services, resource extraction or defense. As of 2017 , China has more SOEs than any other country, and the most SOEs among large national companies. China's SOEs perform functions such as: contributing to central and local governments revenues through dividends and taxes, supporting urban employment, keeping key input prices low, channeling capital towards targeted industries and technologies, supporting sub-national redistribution to poorer interior and western provinces, and aiding

407-550: The GSEs operate. GSEs hold or pool approximately $ 5 trillion worth of mortgages. The U.S. Congress has specified that Federal Reserve Banks must hold collateral equal in value to the Federal Reserve notes that the Federal Reserve Bank puts into circulation. This collateral is chiefly held in the form of U.S. Treasury, federal agency, and government-sponsored enterprise securities. Congress established GSEs to improve

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444-833: The Minister of Finance II, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit, the Chief Secretary to the Government, Secretary General of Treasury and the heads of each of the GLICs (the Employees Provident Fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad , Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (the armed forces pension fund), Lembaga Tabung Haji and Permodalan Nasional Berhad . Khazanah Nasional Berhad provided

481-1003: The USSR. Governments in Western Europe, both left and right of centre, saw state intervention as necessary to rebuild economies shattered by war. Government control over natural monopolies like industry was the norm. Typical sectors included telephones , electric power , fossil fuels , iron ore , railways , airlines , media , postal services , banks , and water . Many large industrial corporations were also nationalized or created as government corporations, including, among many others: British Steel Corporation , Equinor , and Águas de Portugal . A state-run enterprise may operate differently from an ordinary limited liability corporation. For example, in Finland, state-run enterprises ( liikelaitos ) are governed by separate laws. Even though responsible for their own finances, they cannot be declared bankrupt ;

518-592: The buyers of their securities offer them high prices. This is partly due to an "implicit guarantee" that the government would not allow such important institutions to fail or default on debt. This perception has allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to save an estimated $ 2 billion per year in borrowing costs. This implicit guarantee was tested by the subprime mortgage crisis , which caused the U.S. government to bail out and put into conservatorship Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September, 2008. Every GSE prospectus contains

555-646: The cost of credit to the targeted borrowing sectors primarily by reducing the risk of capital losses to investors: agriculture , home finance and education . Well known GSEs are the Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae , and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or Freddie Mac . Congress created the first GSE in 1916 with the creation of the Farm Credit System . It initiated GSEs in

592-423: The efficiency of capital markets and to overcome market imperfections which prevent funds from moving easily from suppliers of funds to areas of high loan demand. This is primarily done by some form of guarantee that limits the risk of capital losses to those supplying funds. Presently, GSEs primarily act as financial intermediaries to assist lenders and borrowers in housing and agriculture. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,

629-492: The following text, or something virtually identical, in bold letters, and has since before the sub-prime loans were originated: "Neither the certificates nor interest on the certificates are guaranteed by the United States, and they do not constitute a debt or obligation of the United States or any of its agencies of instrumentalities other than Fannie Mae." Critics of the GSEs have challenged the "implicit guarantee" since before

666-500: The form of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The Malaysian government launched a GLC Transformation Programme for its linked companies and linked investment companies ("GLICs") on 29 July 2005, aiming over a ten-year period to transform these businesses "into high-performing entities". The Putrajaya Committee on GLC High Performance ("PCG"), which oversaw this programme, was chaired by the Prime Minister , and membership included

703-586: The formation of the Forestry Department in 1921. Research activities in the 1920s were mainly directed at assessing and mapping the State's commercial timber resources. Ground mapping was eventually replaced in the 1930s and 1940s by vastly more efficient aerial mapping. As forestry resource modelling become increasingly sophisticated, the Forestry Department was replaced by the Forestry Commission in 1947 and

740-477: The home finance segment of the economy with the creation of the Federal Home Loan Banks in 1932; and it targeted education when it chartered Sallie Mae in 1972 (although Congress allowed Sallie Mae to relinquish its government sponsorship and become a fully private institution via legislation in 1995). The residential mortgage borrowing segment is by far the largest of the borrowing segments in which

777-410: The land managed by Sustainable Timber Tasmania has informal reserve status to protect habitat for threatened species, provide streamside protection, public recreation, etc. State-owned enterprise The terminology around the term state-owned enterprise is murky. All three words in the term are challenged and subject to interpretation. First, it is debatable what the term "state" implies (e.g., it

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814-412: The leading application of the incomplete contract theory to the issue of state-owned enterprises. These authors compare a situation in which the government is in control of a firm to a situation in which a private manager is in control. The manager can invest to come up with cost-reducing and quality-enhancing innovations. The government and the manager bargain over the implementation of the innovations. If

851-592: The negotiations fail, the owner can decide about the implementation. It turns out that when cost-reducing innovations do not harm quality significantly, then private firms are to be preferred. Yet, when cost-reductions may strongly reduce quality, state-owned enterprises are superior. Hoppe and Schmitz (2010) have extended this theory in order to allow for a richer set of governance structures, including different forms of public-private partnerships . SOEs are common with natural monopolies , because they allow capturing economies of scale while they can simultaneously achieve

888-399: The private sector (perhaps because the good that is being produced requires very risky investments, when patenting is difficult, or when spillover effects exist), the government can help these industries get on the market with positive economic effects. However, the government cannot necessarily predict which industries would qualify as such 'infant industries', and so the extent to which this

925-428: The proportion of the corporate entity a government owns. One definition purports that a company is classified as a GLC if a government owns an effective controlling interest (more than 50%), while the second definition suggests that any corporate entity that has a government as a shareholder is a GLC. The act of turning a part of government bureaucracy into a SOE is called corporatization . In economic theory ,

962-451: The question of whether a firm should be owned by the state or by the private sector is studied in the theory of incomplete contracts developed by Oliver Hart and his co-authors. In a world in which complete contracts were feasible, ownership would not matter because the same incentive structure that prevails under one ownership structure could be replicated under the other ownership structure. Hart, Shleifer, and Vishny (1997) have developed

999-513: The release of the 2015/16 annual report and a loss of $ 67.4 million, the state government announced plans for the rebranding and restructuring of Forestry Tasmania. Changes include a downsizing and rebranding of the company to trade under the name of Sustainable Timber Tasmania, charging more for harvested timber, logging areas earmarked for reserves and for the government to pay more for forestry roads which have multiple uses. Sustainable Timber Tasmania commenced on 1 July 2017. A few months later it

1036-588: The research effort in all subject areas accelerated. The advent of the woodchip export industry in the 1970s gave rise to broad scale pulpwood harvesting. With a strengthened commercial focus, Forestry Tasmania was created in 1994, becoming a corporation under the Government Business Enterprises Act 1995 . In 1994, Forestry Tasmania moved into the Forestry building , a heritage-listed complex situated at 79–93 Melville Street, Hobart . Following

1073-470: The risks associated with individual loans. This also provides standardized instruments ( securitized securities) for investors. Some of the GSEs (such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ) have been privately owned but publicly chartered; others, such as the Federal Home Loan Banks , are owned by the corporations that use their services. GSE securities carry no explicit government guarantee of creditworthiness, but lenders grant them favorable interest rates, and

1110-524: The secretariat to the PCG and managed the implementation of the programme, which was completed in 2015. As of 2024, Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is the most profitable state-owned enterprise in the Philippines. It is the third largest contributor to government revenues, following taxes and customs. Government-sponsored enterprise A government-sponsored enterprise ( GSE )

1147-469: The service. Conversely, they might be detrimental because they reduce oversight and increase transaction costs (such as monitoring costs, i.e., it is more difficult and costly to govern and regulate an autonomous SOE than it is the public bureaucracy). Evidence suggests that existing SOEs are typically more efficient than government bureaucracy, but that this benefit diminishes as services get more technical and have less overt public objectives. Compared to

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1184-465: The state answers for the liabilities. Stocks of the corporation are not sold and loans have to be government-approved, as they are government liabilities. State-owned enterprises are a major component of the economy of Belarus . The Belarusian state-owned economy includes enterprises that are fully state-owned, as well as others which are joint-stock companies with partial ownership by the state. Employment in state-owned or state-controlled enterprises

1221-493: The state's response to natural disasters, financial crises and social instability. China's SOEs are at the forefront of global seaport-building, and most new ports constructed by them are done within the auspices of the Belt and Road Initiative . As of at least 2024, an Ethiopian SOE is Africa's largest and most profitable airline, as well as Ethiopia's largest earner of foreign exchange. In India , government enterprises exist in

1258-657: The term "enterprise" is challenged, as it implies statutes in private law which may not always be present, and so the term "corporations" is frequently used instead. Thus, SOEs are known under many other terms: state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, government-owned company, government controlled company, government controlled enterprise, government-owned corporation, government-sponsored enterprise , commercial government agency, state-privatised industry public sector undertaking, or parastatal, among others. In some Commonwealth realms , ownership by The Crown

1295-529: The two most prominent GSEs, purchase mortgages and package them into mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which carry the financial backing of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Because of this GSE financial backing, these MBS are particularly attractive to investors and are also eligible to trade in the "to-be-announced," or "TBA" market. In addition, the GSEs created a secondary market in loans through guarantees, bonding and securitization . This has allowed primary market debt issuers to increase loan volume and decrease

1332-518: Was announced that 29,000 hectares of hardwood forest plantations were to be sold for $ 60.7 million to Reliance Forest Fibre with a 99-year lease on the land. 'Permanent timber production zone land' (PTPZ or PTPZL) is crown land managed by Sustainable Timber Tasmania as defined in the Forest Management Act 2013 . Crown land may be classified as PTPZ (or have PTPZ classification revoked) pursuant of approval by both Houses of Parliament. PTPZ land

1369-655: Was first established in 1994, although it has earlier historical origins from operations undertaken by the state government. Sustainable Timber Tasmania is overseen by a Board of Management who are responsible to the Treasurer and the Minister for Forests. The passing of the State Forests Act 1885 marked the beginning of regular reporting of forest management activities in Tasmania, conducted by Lands and Surveys Department until

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