Privatisation brought the United Kingdom from being nearly bankrupt in 1980 to its re-emergence as a world economic leader. Privatisation brought similar benefits to the vast majority of countries ranging from Eastern Europe to Africa to South Asia and South America. Fewer than a dozen countries have avoided privatization, and they are the world’s most embarrassing economic failures – North Korea, Cuba, etc.
It works in rich countries like Britain and Saudi Arabia. It works in poorer countries like Tanzania and Sri Lanka. It works in the ‘North’, in Poland and Germany, and in the ‘South’ in Chile, Zambia and Bangladesh. It works in so-called ‘socialist countries’ like China, and so-called ‘capitalist’ countries like Singapore. Location or relative wealth, or literacy, or infrastructure do not matter – privatization works everywhere.