I don't disagree with the approach in general. I just think there's too much selective memory when it comes time for those industries to pay taxes, or be regulated in any way. Then suddenly it's all about the virtues of the mythical free market.

There should also be a general policy requirement that the government gets say 20% of the equity of any venture based on govt-funded R&D. Currently the govt gets all the downside and no (direct) upside to these things.

Any economic growth helps the government in innumerable ways, the government isn't meant to be a profitable industry with a huge upside.

It is not meant to be profitable but it is meant (we hope at least) to provide infrastructure for a society in domains that are not profitable for businesses while trying not to extract too much wealth from taxpayers. Maybe it would be a good thing as it would make the state less dependent on being able to get credit at a good rate and thus less dependent on financial institutions. Do you not agree ?