Book overview by the author, Jojo Nem Singh:
As the world decarbonises and countries race for clean energy technologies, states in the global south with plenty of “critical minerals”, or minerals that are essential for manufacturing equipment for such technologies, are brought forward to supply the world and boost the energy transition. Drawing experiences from Brazil’s Petrobras and Chile’s Codelco, Business of the State explores how state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with the right balance of good governance and alignment with the private sector, could serve as a means for development. The book discusses the fundamental questions: why do some states intervene in the affairs of SOEs, despite the neoliberal belief in the efficacy of markets? Why has it been difficult to privatise SOEs? And what strategies can governments choose to manage these politically sensitive and economically strategic industries? After discussing why states maintain SOEs, rather than privatisation as neoliberalism suggests, it compares and contrasts how Brazil and Chile took different approaches to govern SOEs, and suggests that developmentalism still persists, though in different forms from the standard East Asian examples.
Remarks by Bank Ngamarunchot (STIPI Director):
The book presents two case studies (Chile and Brazil) as hybrid development strategies in response to neoliberalism, with varying degrees and characteristics of liberalisation, given the different context of political ideology and resources in question. The rise of China and the era of strategic competition bring back the roles of industrial policy and the state, via SOEs. Nevertheless, the reformation to maintain SOEs should be seen as unfinished projects, with SOEs acting as pockets of excellence and as buffer for competing demands.
Author:
Jewellord (Jojo) Nem Singh is a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center and an Affiliate Research Fellow and Programme Coordinator at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). The 5-year research programme Green Industrial Policy in the Age of Rare Metals: A Trans-regional Comparison of Growth Strategies in Rare Earths Mining (GRIP-ARM), of which Jojo is the principal investigator, is funded by European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (2021-26).
Previously, Jojo held research fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) in 2017 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the University of Tokyo in 2016. In addition to this book, his publication includes The Politics of Designing and Negotiating Industrial Policy in the 21st Century (Routledge). Apart from his academic work, he served as Consultant for various organizations, including UNDP Brussels, UNRISD in Geneva, and Publish What You Pay in London.
The author’s profile on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jnemsingh/