As African countries work to rebuild their economies from the wreckage caused by the ongoing COVID pandemic, policymakers will be looking at what they can do to bolster their countries’ state-owned enterprises (SOE). That may prompt them to examine China’s model of SOE governance for some inspiration.
Although China’s SOE system is largely unique to China and would be impossible to replicate in African countries, Luke Jordan, a practitioner in residence at the MIT Governance Lab, recently suggested in a new paper published by SAIIA that are, in fact, certain attributes that African stakeholders should consider.
Luke joins Eric & Cobus from Berlin to discuss his paper and what specific lessons about China’s SOE experience he thinks would be applicable in an African context.
Show Notes:
- South African Institute of International Affairs: Lessons for Africa in Chinese SOE Governance by Luke Jordan
- Financial Times: China rushes to set up bailout funds for indebted state-run firms by Sun Yu
- Daily Maverick: Bailout rules for South Africa’s state-owned enterprises may be a prelude to full privatisation by Mfuneko Toyana
About Luke Jordan:
Luke Jordan is a Practitioner in Residence at MIT’s Governance Lab. He worked in China and India for eight years, South Africa for six years, and is now based in Germany. From 2005 to 2010, he worked for McKinsey & Company in Johannesburg and Shanghai. He was one of the lead authors of the McKinsey Global Institute report, Preparing for China’s Urban Billion, led projects in South-East Asia, Africa and China, and authored reports for McKinsey’s CEO on innovation, global macro trends, infrastructure, and reforming capitalism. In 2011, he joined the World Bank Group in New Delhi. He was a founding member of the central team of the Competitive Industries Global Practice. Globally, he led the Practice’s research agenda on the topic of policy implementation, including reports on “flexible implementation” in East Asia, state learning, and institutional innovations in Malaysia and India.
Transcript: (please note this transcript is produced by artificial intelligence so it’s not 100% accurate)
