privatization
...s a part of the adjustment and stabilization programs of the mid-eighties and the nineties. Privatization now frequently features in government policy statements and in conditionalities from donors. The past decade has also seen the World Bank and other donors get increasingly involved in lending operations towards parastatal sector reforms that included privatization components. African countries share a number of common features in relation to the drive towards privatization. For most of these countries, the first twenty years of independence were characterized by rapid growth, driven by favorable terms of trade and high levels of public investments in infrastructure and services. The development of import substituting industries brought in the dramatic rise of parastatal corporations, which were also used as vehicles for increased local participation in the economies. Many governments moved to nationalize existing foreign interests in their countries and also to create new state enterprises to carry out the various production and trading functions. Parastatal corporations rapidly dominated the extractive industries, manufacturing and financial sectors of their economies, and acquired important economic and political status, becoming major sources of employment. The moderate growth experienced in the seventies, however, was quickly reversed by the financial crisis of the early eighties, and associated inefficiencies made parastatal sector reform a major element in the reform efforts implemented by the countries. Zambia was one of the earlier countries t...