Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
MY apologies as I was swamped this week and did not have the time to write and reflect on my weekly column with sufficient care. I am reading and hearing all this talk about privatization, private-public partnerships (PPP) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) programs and some confusion about what they really are and entail. Frankly, also sometimes without understanding what they should accomplish.
Privatization is the sale of an asset owned by the government, whether a government asset or a formerly private asset that has been nationalized or rescued by the government. Examples of that are the sale of Petron which was formed when the government bought a refinery and retail operation then built it up to a leading national champion that was the biggest player in the industry, with Shell and Caltex (now Chevron) as the other major players. Another example was the sale of control of Philippine Airlines by primarily GSIS.
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