Public and professional disputes about what kind of capitalism we live in can be most quickly interrupted by looking at the state’s share in the overall economy. Although its influence, among other things in the context of budget expenditures and public procurement, is significantly greater (for years estimates hover around 60 percent share in the economy), a not bad measure is the number of companies in state ownership. Although the number of companies under state auspices does not change (it has hovered around a thousand for years), the trend is good: their share in the economy is decreasing. Measured by sales revenue (from seven to 5.3 percent in five years) and the number of employees (from 10.2 to 9.2 percent) and newly created value (from 12.4 to 8.8 percent).
However, this did not happen due to active and (well) intended government policy, but due to the flourishing of the private sector, especially in the last three to four years. And in the rush of good GDP trends, we somehow forgot about the type of capitalism at the beginning of the story. Crony (engl. crony) capitalism is only occasionally brought to our attention, from scandal to scandal, and in the time between media upheavals, we regularly forget to demand reform of state-owned enterprises. Which persistently remains absent. And there are at least 13.5 billion euros of reasons for that. This is the amount of revenue from state-owned enterprises from which politics draws its real power.
Everything is about timing
No one, of course, expects that anyone will voluntarily give up. Fortunately, membership in various clubs (NATO, EU, eurozone, Schengen…) has carried out reforms that we would not have accomplished even on our deathbed. Next year, we are expected to join the OECD, and for that, we need to roll up our sleeves a bit. And to bring a new law on companies in state ownership that should, after thirty years, break the political staffing through the knee. However, economist Velimir Šonje notes that the law will also be aided by several ‘external’ circumstances: the criteria for the implementation of the NPOO; labor market pressures where there is a shortage of workers and from which private entrepreneurs are increasingly demanding that the public sector stop absorbing the labor supply and that technological progress, productivity, and efficiency free hidden surpluses of labor supply; pressures from the financial market and pension funds on the government to ensure additional supply of quality shares; pressures from users on individual state-owned enterprises to finally improve the quality of public services. The law obviously has luck or everything is about timing.
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