Economic Sectors
Government-owned corporations often operate in sectors where there is a natural monopoly, or where the government has strategic interest. However, government ownership of industry corporations is common.
Nationalization also forcibly converts a private corporation into a government-owned corporation.
In most OPEC countries, the governments own the oil companies operating on their soil. A notable example is the Saudi national oil company, Saudi Aramco, which the Saudi government bought in 1988 and changed its name from Arabian American Oil Company to Saudi Arabian Oil Company. The Saudi government also owns and operates Saudi Arabian Airlines, and owns 70% of SABIC, as well as many other companies. They are, however, being privatized gradually.
Read more about this topic: Government Corporations
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“Politics at all times lead to bloody wars, and not only politics, but also religions as well as social and economic systems of all times are spattered with blood. Invariably the big ones devoured the little ones, and the little ones the tiny ones.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)