Privatization, regulation and development: Some questions of training strategy
| Date | 01 October 1990 |
| Published date | 01 October 1990 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100402 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol. 10,375-388
(1990)
Privatization, regulation and development: some questions
of
training strategy
PAUL COLLINS
UNDP
and
MALCOLM WALLIS
University
of
Birmingham
SUMMARY
In the current debate over the role
of
the public sector and its effective and efficient management,
too little attention has been paid to the training implications
of
the various policy options.
These include privatization as well as public enterprise performance improvement and rehabili-
tation. Third world training institutions are only just beginning to respond to the new tasks
of
re-equipping public sector managers to enable them to play a more ‘enabling’
or
‘facilitating’
role vis-a-vis the private and parastatal sectors. Accordingly, this article suggests a number
of
major elements that need go into any national training effort to strengthen the government-
enterprise interface, including some
of
the curricular content, needs
for
case and teaching
materials, developing training methods, the role of research, possibilities of a regional approach
and the role
of
the international donor community.
INTRODUCTION
Policy options for third world enterprize development are ostensibly wide-ranging
and complex-specially in the least developed countries and in Africa. One of those
options, privatization, takes various forms-ranging from outright sale through joint
venture arrangements to contracting out along the lines of UK and USA. For various
reasons, the possible extent of privatization, in its fullest sense, may be limited in
many of the least developed countries. Public enterprize performance improvement
and rehabilitation remains a major option. In that context more enterprizing forms
of
government supervision may be called for. Even where a major privatization
programme is feasible, the role of government is not necessarily reduced in overall
terms even though it involves less direct service provision or production. In economies
where Transnational Corporations
(TNCs)
are likely to be buyers or contractees
are divested parastatal assets and services, the state has a major role to play, both
as a negotiator of beneficial contracts as well as an ongoing regulator of an expanded
private sector with regard to policy issue areas such
as
labour, taxation, incentives,
protection, foreign exchange, and pricing, amongst others.
Dr Collins, whose views are expressed in a personal capacity only,
is
Principal Adviser, Management
Development Programmes Bureau for Programme Policy and Evaluation, UNDP, New York,
NY
10017,
USA. Dr Wallis is Lecturer, Development Administration Group,
School
of
Public Policy, Birmingham
University, Birmingham B15
2TT,
UK.
027
1-2075/90/040375-14%07.00
0
1990
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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