Seco examines OECD demand for privatization of Swisscom
SECO is reviewing the OECD's call for the privatization of telecommunications giant Swisscom. The goal is to determine whether the federal government's ownership strategy still meets today's requirements, says SECO Director Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch in an interview.
Ineichen-Fleisch told the NZZ am Sonntag that the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) will address this question in its new growth strategy for 2016 to 2020. According to the head of Seco, Swisscom is a well-managed company. However, Switzerland must ensure that it does not miss out on the step towards the digitalization of the economy. "We have to ask ourselves: Is Swisscom in a position to do this quickly and agilely enough in its traditional area of telecommunications? And at what cost?" According to Ineichen-Fleisch, the federal government must also ask itself whether there are any conflicts of interest for it as the owner if state-owned companies expand into new digital companies outside of their public service mandate. With this statement, the Seco Director is implicitly referring to the new advertising platform that Swisscom wants to operate together with the media companies Ringier and SRG.
Majority of the Confederation provides a talking point
"According to the OECD, it is at least difficult to prove that a state-owned company is faster and more efficient than a private company," Ineichen-Fleisch points out. In a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Swisscom came off badly. As a former monopolist, it still enjoys advantages and thus slows down competition, was the criticism. In this context, the OECD even called for the complete privatization of the industry leader. Swisscom CEO Urs Schäppi rejected this in mid-December. "Swisscom is not a state-owned company, but a listed company with a market capitalization of CHF 26 billion," he said in an interview with the
Sonntagszeitung. Although the Confederation has a narrow majority, a look at the strategic goals shows that the majority owner is giving Swisscom entrepreneurial freedom. (SDA)
