Some infrastructures and supply chains are strategic - and some are not. The Panama canal is strategic- if China controls it they can more easily ship Venezuelas oil to China and refine it and send manufactured goods in return. Roads, rail and electricity supply and shipping canals, can sometimes be natural monopolies and thus strategic assets. If your economy is a primary producer then the processing and export of your produce can be a strategic supply chain- if foreign markets who want those products you produce gain capture and control of the processing and export supply chain then you risk becoming a banana republic. If your economy requires refined rare earths as crucial components for your military and high tech manufacturing then you had better not become dependent upon a competing nation who develop a monopoly over the supply of rare earths. Only a government can watch for and prevent such strategic pitfalls as the investment required to refine rare earths is not viable for free market investors to make. The direct returns to investors are not adequate to justify private capital investment - the true return is instead to the wider economy that retains supply and avoids becoming subservient to a dominant foreign supplier.

The strongest economy is one where government works to maximise the productive potential of free markets by minimising external and internal supply chain and market rigging. As famously noted by Adam Smith, it is the natural tendency for merchants to conspire against consumers and without a government vigilant and active against such market fixing, free markets cannot thrive.