‘…few systematic attempts have been made to monitor SOE financial performance…’ [1]. THE WORLD BANK
An SOE is a state-owned enterprise. This tactful understatement is from the Bank 1988 World Development Report, which considers the struggle between public and private operations. Privatization of ports and shipping is a philosophical cousin of deregulation, free trade laissez-faire and user pay. All are attempts to reduce the role of governments. In the maritime world these fashionable efforts come along with violent technical change and a long spell of depression caused by too many ships. This paper considers the public interest in widely varied attempts to private deepsea shipping lines and the ports they serve. It also offers comments on the situation in the year 2000. For background, it starts with a review of the present situation as reported in the maritime press and observed in recent studies by the authors. It concludes that:
(a) tankers, bulk carriers and their ports from mainly free market industrial systems which will not change greatly;
(b) East/West containership services are competitive, efficient and daily becoming more sophisticated, mostly in private hands;
(c) ships and ports in Africa, India and Latin America are behind the times and ripe for privatization;
(d) ports are dependent on public finance and often locked into hopeless labour situations. They need private operators;
(e) Government-owned shipping lines are minus factors in balance of payments accounts; and
(f) their worst problems are subsidies and protection, which insulate them from the real world of shipping.
Maritime privatization
Maritime Policy & Management ; 17 , 2 ; 113-121
1990-06-01
9 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Unbekannt
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