Is selling some government property (or business or whatever) to another country or company that is owned by another country considered privatization?
I wouldn’t say there is only one definition for privatization, but the way it’s most commonly used is that a service formerly provided by government is now provided by a private company.
Selling property isn’t really privatization. Getting out of a municipal bus service or having a private company run an expressway would be privatization.
I think you need to provide a specific example of what you’re thinking of.
My answer would be yes - privatisation generally involves removing an asset (even a negative asset) from the Govt books into someone elses hands, in return for cash. The same applies to services - the assets, staff etc of the service are no longer on the governments books, and it does not matter who now owns them. The Govt may continue to pay on a per service basis for delivery, but the assets are off the books.
So a case in point - during the wave of privatisation in NZ during the 1990s, the logging rights to some nationally owned pine forests were sold to overseas interests for a 25 year period. The land was not sold, and I am not sure who was responsible for reforestation (I assume the govt). Now those rights have reverted and the Govt can go ahead and resell them.
It’s also possible that it could happen on a subnational level. For example, a city in Oregon that has a municipal trash collection division could sell that division to BFI Waste Management and either pay them an agreed rate (paid for by taxes) to continue to collect everyone’s trash or allow citizens to sign up and pay for collection if they want. A city could probably also contract out police work to an out-of-state department. For example, the City of Newark, NJ could arrange a deal whereby the NYPD will be given arrest jurisdiction in Newark and be expected to protect it and the existing Newark municipal police department will be closed down. As long as NJ is ok with giving NYPD officers certified law enforcement status in NJ (probably mostly a formality if high-up folks are asking it), it would be fine.
I’m wondering if Qwertol’s OP was inspired by PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s latest escapade…basically leasing out the PA Lottery to the company that runs the British national lottery, Camelot?