Government Ownership vs Private Ownership

Question

In a debate concerning long term economic strategy, a representative of a left party was trying to support that privatisation and Small Government which minimizes its own activities is not a viable direction in a Global Economy, i.e. it will lead to a further loss of sovereignty in a sense that a country applies its policies mostly via the public sector, which if minimized will have insignificant impact. Then the opponent asked a simple, but intriguing question:

"Is there an example where a government owned company¹ has a product that is competitive with a product of a private company?"

After a brief research I really couldn't find such example. Is there such an example and if not, what counter argument there could be presented against the above question?

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^{1. Without the trivial and most frequent example of a monopoly.}

Answer 1

Yes, there are lots. Several state-owned energy companies succeed in international competitive markets, for example.

EDF is majority-owned by the French State, and is a successful competitor in energy markets in other countries; e.g. GB electricity retail.

DONG is majority-owned by the Danish State, and is a successful competitor in energy markets in other countries; e.g. UK offshore windfarm installation.