First High-Level International Symposium on future challenges of Public Sector Enterprises (PSE)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE FIRST HIGH-LEVEL INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON FUTURE CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC SECTOR ENTERPRISES (PSE)

Organised by International Center for Promotion of Enterprises

Under a high patronage of the Ministry of Finance of Republic of Slovenia

Ljubljana, 7 – 8 November 2010

BACKGROUND

The issues of public sector enterprises (PSE) concerning their role in economic development and enhancement of country’ welfare have been subjects of intense debates worldwide both for economic theoreticians and policymakers. In recent decades, academic reasoning about the role of the public sector and public enterprises have fluctuated rapidly in line with swinging of economic policy from global wave of privatization in eighties and nineties toward massive state intervention during the recent crisis.

However, public enterprises remain important producer of goods and services both in developed and developing countries and in the recent years became key driver of emerging-market economies’ growth. More than a hundred state-owned and public companies from Brazil, Russia, India, and China appeared for the first time on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest companies, while today nine of the world’s 30 largest listed firms are emerging-market companies that count the state as their dominant shareholder. These examples clearly illustrate that public sector enterprises can match the performance of their private-owned counterparties and become the world class players.

The rise of the public enterprises and the significant change of global economic conditions open the new debates about state ownership and state-managed enterprises in the economy and the weight and identity of private partners in the state-industry relationship. Hence, the real challenge for the market economies of the twenty first century will be to redefine their public-private mixture toward sustainable, market-oriented and socially responsible organizations. To achieve these goals, various issues like new forms of public private dialogue and partnerships, corporate governance and social responsibility, as well as clarification of the objectives and performance measurement of the PSE have to be frequently discussed.

Throughout its long and rich history of thirty-five years, the International Center for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE) has been always recognized as a key international institution focused on fostering research activities on public enterprises.  Therefore, as the leading intergovernmental organization in the area of PSE, ICPE strives to gather eminent PSE experts, policymakers and successful businessmen, highest officials of international organisations, diplomatic corps and representatives of media to discuss on PSE open issues both from public and private point of view and bring purposeful conclusions with tangible outcomes. The topics to be discussed at the Symposium will be:

Ø      Role of the PSE in the country development

Ø      PSE – private sector dialogue and corporate social responsibility

Ø      Case studies of PSE’ management practices

The objectives of the Symposium are:

Ø      to raise awareness of all concerned stakeholders on the importance of the public-private dialogue for overcoming the difficulties with economic, public and political nature of PSE activities

Ø      to analyze the PSE corporate governance and social responsibility policy frameworks aiming to identify best PSE practices as benchmarks for evaluation

Ø      to influence policy making by providing opinions and conclusions about repositioning of public sector enterprises as a service global welfare and human development improvement

The Symposium will be an unique opportunity for the PSE experts and other interested parties to exchange information, ideas and opinions on future challenges of PSE and to promote their repositioning in new economic and social framework.

PROGRAMME OF THE SYMPOSIUM

Ø      9.00-9.05         Welcome by Dr. Bogdan Štefan Šalej, Director General, ICPE

Ø      9.05-9.15         Official opening by Dr. Franci Križanič, Minister of Finance of RS and a high patronage of the Symposium

Ø      09:15-11:00    1st panel: Role of the PSE in the country development

Moderator: Rubens Ricupero, former Minister of Finance of Brasil and DG UNCTAD, Brasil

Ø      11:00-11:15    Coffee break

Ø      11:15-13:15     2nd panel: PSE – private sector dialogue and corporate social responsibility

Moderator:  Dr. Peter Kraljič, McKinsey Advisory Council, Slovenia

Ø      13:15-14:00    Working lunch

Ø      14:00-16:00    3rd panel: Case studies of PSE’ management practices

Moderator: Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary, Government of India, Public Sector Enterprises, India

Ø      16:00-17:00    Conclusions of the Symposium

Ø      20.00               Celebration of the 35th anniversary of ICPE under high patronage of HE Dr Danilo Türk, President of the Republic of Slovenia

STEERING COMMITTEE

The Steering Committee will be presided by Dr. Peter Kraljič, a member of the McKinsey Advisory Council and until 2002 Senior Director in McKinsey who has published a number of scientific and business articles for Harvard Business Review, Manager Magazine, Le Figaro Economie, Columbia Journal of Business and others.

Members of the Steering Committee:

Ø      Dr. Peter Kraljič, McKinsey Advisory Council, President of the Steering Committee

Ø      Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary, Government of India, Public Sector Enterprises

Ø      Ambassador Rubens Ricupero, former Minister of Finance of Brasil and DG UNCTAD

Ø      Dr. Nevenka Hrovatin, Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana

Ø      Dr. Štefan Bogdan Šalej, Director General, International Center for Promotion of Enterprises

Ø      Dr. Dejan Erić, Director, Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade