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Revisiting privatization’s claims | Inter Press Service
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/09/revisiting-privatizations-claims

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 4 2018 (IPS) - Several arguments have been advanced to justify privatization since the 1980s. Privatization has been advocated as an easy means to:
1. Reduce the government’s financial and administrative burden, particularly by undertaking and maintaining services and infrastructure;
2. Promote competition, improve efficiency and increase productivity in providing public services;
3. Stimulate private entrepreneurship and investment to accelerate economic growth;
4. Help reduce the public sector’s presence and size, with its monopolistic tendencies and bureaucratic support.

Has Privatization Benefitted the Public ? | Inter Press Service
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/04/privatization-benefitted-public

To ensure public acceptability, some benefits accrue to many in the early stages of privatization in order to minimize public resistance. However, in the longer term, privatization tends to enrich a few but typically fails to deliver on its ostensible aims.

#privatisation en théorie (capitaliste) et en pratique

UN Begins Talks on World’s First Treaty to Regulate High Seas | Inter Press Service
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/09/un-begins-talks-worlds-first-treaty-regulate-high-seas

After several years of preliminary discussions, the United Nations has begun its first round of inter-governmental negotiations to draft the world’s first legally binding treaty to protect and regulate the “high seas”—which, by definition, extend beyond 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) and are considered “international waters” shared globally.

(…) The two-week Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), which concludes 17 September, is described as the first in a series of four negotiating sessions which are expected to continue through 2020.

(…) [topics] will include those who regulate activities such as fishing and mining, and what role these other organizations will play in the management of activities that may impact on the marine environment in future ocean sanctuaries on the high seas.

“Also tricky is the issue of marine genetic resources, especially how to ensure the access and sharing of benefits from their use,” Dr Frank said.

#mer