State-owned enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa : engines of development and competitiveness?.

This Publication Examines The Contribution Of Mena Soes To Industiral Development, Diversification, Poverty Elimination And The Provision Of Goods And Services To The Public, And Provides An Overview Of The Diverse Mandates And Roles Of Mena Soes. Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Introduction to state capitalism in the MENA region -- State capitalism in the Middle East -- Size of SOE sectors not declining -- Scope of the SOE sector clearer -- Re-balancing of SWFs -- Notes -- Bibliography -- ch. 2 Objectives and roles of MENA state-owned enterprises -- Theoretical background -- Performance of MENA SOEs -- Sectoral distribution -- Notes -- Bibliography -- ch. 3 The role of state-owned enterprises in MENA development and competitiveness -- National differences -- SOEs as a mechanism for subsidisation -- Notes -- Bibliography -- ch. 4 Implications of the diverse objectives of MENA state-owned enterprises -- Labour market implications of MENA SOEs -- The fiscal consequences of inefficient SOEs -- SOEs and effective competition -- Private and public monopolies -- SOEs and irregular practices -- Notes -- Bibliography -- ch. 5 Avenues for reform: towards efficient state-owned enterprises in the MENA region. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are an important feature of the economic landscape in the Middle East and North Africa region and yet, their contribution to the local economies has not been subject to a systematic investigation. SOEs in the region are generally perceived as inefficient and subject to sub-optimal governance arrangements but at the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, they are often charged developmental mandates that typically go beyond their stated commercial objectives. This phenomenon owes to the historically prominent role of the state in the economic development in the re