State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) across the world are the main drivers of the economy in several significant economies. They contribute to their countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although SOEs are often the principal drivers of the formal sector of the economy and contribute significantly to economic growth as the main entities that deliver many social goods and services to ensure a better quality of life for all, many experience governance failures as the main factor behind their inability to fulfil their developmental mandates.

In addition, inter-governmental arrangements such as BRICS have members which have failed to develop a common agenda for SOEs largely due to governance, policy, oversight, and accountability issues. The webinar on SOE’s is aimed at exploring these political and economic issues confronting the SOEs sector in the BRICS countries. The webinar will also examine SOE reforms in the BRICS countries with a view to improving their role in addressing their own countries’ socio-economic needs and that of the BRICS community in general. The key question in mind to be addressed remains: how could SOEs be made optimally responsive to their developmental mandates to drive social change and stimulate economic growth within BRICS during and after the COVID-19 pandemic?