A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned
entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government
business enterprise, commercial government agency, public sector
undertaking or parastatal is a legal entity created by a
government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an
owner government. Their legal status varies from being a part of
government to stock companies with a state as a regular
stockholder. There is no standard definition of a government-
owned corporation (GOC) or state-owned enterprise (SOE),
although the two terms can be used interchangeably. The defining
characteristics are that they have a distinct legal form and
they are established to operate in commercial affairs. While
they may also have public policy objectives, GOCs should be
differentiated from other forms of government agencies or state
entities established to pursue purely non-financial objectives.
Government-owned corporations are common with natural monopolies
and infrastructure such as rail