Suchergebnisse

The Mekong sub-region has important signifcance in China's peripheral diplomacy and regional cooperation strategy. The Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program (GMS-ECP) is one of the earliest and most effective regional cooperation programmes that China has participated in. However, after more than 20 years, the development of sub-regional cooperation is still hindered by bottlenecks in economic, political, social, and other felds that need to be jointly addressed by the relevant countries. Since China put forward the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road Initiative in 2013, various signs indicate that China has been seeking to upgrade sub-regional cooperation. On 12 November 2015, China launched the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). The author will analyse the causes for the upgrading and related policies, and offer three main reasons for the upgrading of the Mekong River cooperation. First, sub-regional economic cooperation has reached a higher level. In the context of a marked decrease of the marginal effect of lower tariffs, there is a need for an economic cooperation upgrade. Second, there is an urgent need for subregional economic cooperation to expand to include security, political and social felds. Third, China hopes to play a fuller and more dominant role within the sub-regional cooperation framework.

The International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) is a humanitarian, nonprofit organization devoted to the eradication of landmines in the region of South-East Europe and the world. When first established by the Slovenian government in March 1998, ITF was to assist Bosnia and Herzegovina in solving its landmine problem, and help surviving landmine victims with physical and socio-economic rehabilitation. However, as BiH was not the only country in the region affected by landmines (see Mine-contamination in the countries of ITF operations), it made good sense for ITF to spread its operations to include all other mine-affected countries in SE Europe as well. Presently, ITF is working in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro. Some of the activities are also being carried out in Southern Caucasus and Cyprus. ITF seeks to attract public and private donors for Mine Action related activities in SE Europe including mine clearance, landmine victims assistance, mine risk education and training. While ITF has adopted a holistic approach to the landmine and UXO problem, we are however also striving to meet the needs of mine-affected communities on the ground level. ITF has been working very closely with the national governments and Mine Action Centers of the mine-affected countries so as to ensure that donated funds are spent on providing useful help to the local population.

"This article analyses how long former university students stay unemployed, when searching for the new employment after leaving of the French higher education. Cox duration models are used to account for the proportional hypothesis. The main result of this paper is that the worker's recruitment is based more on the choice of the faculty of initial training than the educational level attainment. Some policy implications are derived from our results to give some recommendations for individual job search and policy-makers in education." [author's abstract]

Журнал «Реальный бизнес» и Hаучно-исследовательский институт «Институт Политических и Медиаметрических Исследований» (НИИ «ИПМИ») продолжают ежемесячную публикацию индексов, позволяющих выяснить «самочувствие» страны или региона (начало в РБ №02, 2012). Мы исследуем следующие индексы: индексы экономической, социентальной, политической, правовой и творческой депривации, индекс недовольства политикой властей, индекс потенциальной и реальной эмиграции, индекс теневого дохода, индекс потребительской кредитной задолженности и индекс потребительского оптимизма. ; The magazine «Real business» and Hauchno-research institute «Institute of Political and Media metric Researches» (Scientific research institute "IPMI") continue the monthly publication of the indexes, allowing to find out "health" of the country or the region (the beginning in RB No. 02, 2012). We investigate the following indexes: indexes of an economic, sotsiyentalny, political, legal and creative deprivatsiya, index of discontent with policy of the authorities, index of potential and real emigration, index of the shadow income, index of consumer credit debt and index of consumer optimism.

Журнал «Реальный бизнес» и Hаучно-исследовательский институт «Институт Политических и Медиаметрических Исследований» (НИИ «ИПМИ») продолжают ежемесячную публикацию индексов, позволяющих выяснить «самочувствие» страны или региона (начало в РБ №02, 2012). Мы исследуем следующие индексы: индексы экономической, социентальной, политической, правовой и творческой депривации, индекс недовольства политикой властей, индекс потенциальной и реальной эмиграции, индекс теневого дохода, индекс потребительской кредитной задолженности и индекс потребительского оптимизма. ; The magazine «Real business» and Hauchno-research institute «Institute of Political and Media metric Researches» (Scientific research institute "IPMI") continue the monthly publication of the indexes, allowing to find out "health" of the country or the region (the beginning in RB No. 02, 2012). We investigate the following indexes: indexes of an economic, sotsiyentalny, political, legal and creative deprivatsiya, index of discontent with policy of the authorities, index of potential and real emigration, index of the shadow income, index of consumer credit debt and index of consumer optimism.

On a country-wide scale, the problem of food security is closely connected with the general doctrine of national security. The article analyzes the causes and factors of the features and patterns of food security issues as a component of international economic security; the essence and content of food security as an integral part of socio-economic development in the context of international economic security are presented. The purpose of the article is to determine the influence of economic and social factors on the level of food security of the population. The methodic of work is based on the construction of a correlation-regression model of the influence of a certain range of factors on food safety of households in the context of providing social stability. During the study it was used the information obtained from official statistical sources and respondents survey. The results of the study represent the dependence of the food security of the population of Italy and Ukraine on such factors as the level of income, the importance of value when choosing products, the availability of family members who are starving, etc. ; Šalies mastu aprūpinimo maistu problema yra glaudžiai susijusi su bendrąja nacionalinio saugumo doktrina. Straipsnyje analizuojamos maisto saugos, kaip tarptautinio ekonominio saugumo sudedamosios dalies, ypatybių ir modelių priežastys ir veiksniai; Pateikiama aprūpinimo maistu, kaip neatsiejamos socialinio ir ekonominio vystymosi, esmė ir turinys tarptautinio ekonominio saugumo kontekste. Straipsnio tikslas - nustatyti ekonominių ir socialinių veiksnių įtaką gyventojų aprūpinimo maistu lygiui. Darbo metodika remiasi tam tikro veiksnių spektro įtakos namų ūkių saugai koreliacijos regresijos modelio konstravimu užtikrinant socialinį stabilumą. Tyrimo metu buvo naudojama informacija, gauta iš oficialių statistinių šaltinių ir respondentų apklausos. Tyrimo rezultatai rodo Italijos ir Ukrainos gyventojų aprūpinimo maistu priklausomybę nuo tokių veiksnių, kaip pajamų lygis, vertės svarba renkantis produktus, galimybės badauti šeimos nariams ir kt.

China has experienced extensive forest transition, from net deforestation to net forestation. Existing theories have highlighted economic growth, the intensification of agriculture and forest scarcity as the pathways of this transition, and studies, in particular from China, have also highlighted the contribution of a huge state afforestation program and the improved implementation and enforcement of forest protection policy and law. However, few studies have paid attention to local dynamics to provide a contextualized understanding of how forest transition has taken place at the local level and the significance of local factors in this change. This paper examines forest transition pathways in two villages in China. We consider the historical perspective and compare their local dynamics and variations to reach an understanding of the process of forest recovery at the local level. The results show that state forestry policies, including afforestation policy and tenure reform, arguably contribute to forest increase, while local processes including livelihood change and institutional factors play a key role in driving and shaping forest transition. We argue that there is a need for local-level studies and recommend including local institutions in forest transition analysis, contextualizing the socio-ecological interactions within the broader concept of political economy.

This work analyzes the political instrumentalization of culture. Specifically, it studies how this is done through cultural policy within Western democracies. The analysis takes, as an example, official Nordic cultural cooperation in the post-war period. During this time, cultural exchange among Nordic countries became the subject of political attention establishing itself as part of the Nordic inter-governmental cooperation framework. This work focuses on three key moments in the history of official Nordic cultural cooperation: (i) the failure of the NORDEK plan (a plan which envisaged extensive economic cooperation between the Nordic countries) and the establishment of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 1971; (ii) the collapse of the Soviet system at the end of the 1980s - beginning of the 1990s; and (iii) the movement towards promoting the Nordic region on the global market in the first decade of the 2000s. The analysis traces the lack of convergence between the official arm's length principle in cultural policy and how cultural cooperation actually worked. The results of the research both demonstrate the various ways culture was instrumentalized and also prove that the politically defined concept of culture can receive different interpretations in the official discourse depending on current political goals.

While greater democracy may be the key to stability in Eastern Europe, the question is how to make this a reality, requiring a close look at the aims & interests of Germany's eastern policy. Despite vociferous rhetoric by the German administration with respect to Russia, democracy & constitutionality are not first on the agenda, & efforts to simultaneously build economic & energy relationships have been unsuccessful. Putin needs western technology & capital to modernize its economy, recognition from the west to provide legitimacy to its policies, & has elements among the elite who are culturally & economically strongly associated with the west. Yet German politicians must recognize that they do not share common values & change will not occur under this regime, as the authoritarian elite would need to give up the dream of renewing Russian superpower though its raw materials. While opportunities to advance democracy from the outside are limited, a first step could be opening the borders of the EU to Russian citizens, as political change cannot succeed from above. While a common eastern policy is desirable, clear aims must first be formulated, & domestic developments in Poland make German-Polish cooperation unlikely at the moment. L. Reed

As a country sets a peg of its currency the monetary policy credibility it expects to gain implies that the anti-inflationary performance has to be as similar as possible to the anchor country one. Failing to meet this requirement can lead to speculative attacks against the currency parity. This is an insight drawn from monetary policy credibility models dealing with fixed exchange rates regimes. In addition, multiple equilibria embedded in these models may cause speculative attacks that make the efficiency of exchange rate regimes questionable. Contrary to this theoretical insight, the Franc zone continues to work despite the disinflation process in the European Union which is likely to increase the level of constraint related the use of the euro as an anchor. This paper shows how the existence of particular arrangements in the Franc zone allows for getting a framework without multiple equilibria and insures the stability of the system. Moreover, two kinds of structural asymmetries relative to African economies are introduced to show that, without the "operations account" mechanism, the EMU advent and the unfavorable economic and political environment which prevails in Africa are likely to have increased the constraint of pegging to the euro.

As a country sets a peg of its currency the monetary policy credibility it expects to gain implies that the anti-inflationary performance has to be as similar as possible to the anchor country one. Failing to meet this requirement can lead to speculative attacks against the currency parity. This is an insight drawn from monetary policy credibility models dealing with fixed exchange rates regimes. In addition, multiple equilibria embedded in these models may cause speculative attacks that make the efficiency of exchange rate regimes questionable. Contrary to this theoretical insight, the Franc zone continues to work despite the disinflation process in the European Union which is likely to increase the level of constraint related the use of the euro as an anchor. This paper shows how the existence of particular arrangements in the Franc zone allows for getting a framework without multiple equilibria and insures the stability of the system. Moreover, two kinds of structural asymmetries relative to African economies are introduced to show that, without the "operations account" mechanism, the EMU advent and the unfavorable economic and political environment which prevails in Africa are likely to have increased the constraint of pegging to the euro.

This study investigates the significance of science diplomacy at the convergence of politics, diplomacy, and science, emphasizing its heightened relevance in contemporary geopolitics and economic development. The aim was to elucidate the role of science diplomacy in optimizing negotiation outcomes concerning international business contracts by examining students' perceptions of its impacts in such contexts. A theoretical analysis was initially conducted to identify the main themes shaping our questionnaire by employing a comprehensive research strategy that combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Data collection was carried out through a survey using a five-point Likert scale. The study revealed the students' positive evaluation of science diplomacy, indicating their recognition and appreciation of its utilization in enhancing negotiation outcomes over international business contracts. While political leadership remains crucial in economic negotiations, our findings underscore the significant impact of science diplomacy in promoting international economic relations and facilitating domestic companies' access to global markets. This research significantly contributes to our understanding of the multifaceted role of science diplomacy in global knowledge dissemination and problem-solving. It elucidates the importance of science diplomacy in international relations and academia, emphasizing its constructive impact on addressing complex challenges.

The textile industry has a role in the non-oil export of Indonesia. Cotton is the main raw material of textile and products of textile (TPT) in Indonesia. Ninety-nine percent of the domestic needs of cotton is imported from Australia, America and China. The Pondok Pesantren Darussalam Co-operation (Koppontren) has been one of the developers of rami fiber since 1998. The objectives of this study is to assess the description of rami fiber, the economic prospect and its development strategy, as well as to identify internal and external factors influencing its production strategy as the alternative raw material of the textile industry, in order to decrease dependency on import, which has become very high and difficult to obtain. The methods of analysis used were a technical survey using questionnaire, a descriptive analysis, a ratio analysis, and the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) qualitative analysis. From the descriptive analysis it has been found that (1) the raw material of rami cotton has some advantages, such as resistant to bacteria and fungi, better water absorption, a stronger pull, and better social economic impact; (2) The ratio analysis of the financial report is based on (a) the liquidity rate, covering the Current Ratio (CR) of 1.57, the Quick Asset Ratio (QAR) of 1.41, and the Net Working Capital (NWC) of 0.58; (b) the Solvability Ratio, covering Debt to Asset Ratio (DAR) of 0.08, and the Equity Multiplier of 1.09; (c) the Activity Ratio, covering the Inventory Turn Over (ITO) of 26.7, and the Total Asset Turn Over (TATO) of 0.49; (d) the Profitability Ratio, covering the Profit Margin (PM) of 0.08, the Return on Asset (ROA) of 0.04, and the Return on Equity (ROE) of 0.04; (3) The SWOT qualitative analysis showed the following internal and external factors: (1) Strengths (S): good financial performance and adequate raw material; (2) Weaknesses (W): weak manpower, old production equipment, and simple management; (3) Opportunities (O): availability of market share, product development and government policy; (4) Threats (T): no SNI standard, business competition and low price of imported rami cotton. The analysis resulted in an alternative strategy, such as a combination of (1) "SO": good financial performance because this has created profit, and availability of raw material for adequate production; (2) "ST": deciding production cost, and increasing quality of rami cotton; (3) "WO": development of manpower through training, improvement of production technology, and effectiveness of managerial system in running the business; (4) "WT": business strategy by focusing on certain grades of products, developing a wider partnership with others, and investing production equipment.

To date, government procurement has been effectively carved out of the main multilateral rules of the WTO system. This paper examines the systemic and other ramifications of this exclusion, from both an economic and a legal point of view. In addition to relevant elements of the WTO Agreements, particularly the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), it derives insights from a large number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) that embody substantive provisions on both government procurement and services trade. An important finding is that, from an economic perspective, general market access commitments with respect to services trade and commitments regarding government procurement of services are complementary and mutually reinforcing. In contrast, from a legal point of view and at the multilateral level, disciplines in the two areas have been "divided up" into two Agreements with different (but complementary) spheres of application: the key provisions regarding the scope of application of the GATS and the GPA make clear that each serves purposes that the other does not. Analysis of corresponding provisions of RTAs broadly supports and extends this finding. In light of the foregoing, a question arises as to possible ways of deepening disciplines in this area. Part 5 sets out, for reflection, several related options: (i) the built-in mandate in the GATS for negotiations on services procurement (Article XIII:2); (ii) "multilateralization" of the GPA; (iii) the reactivation of work in the (currently inactive) WTO Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement; and (iv) the taking up of relevant issues in the context of bilateral or regional negotiations. Overall, we find that each of these possibilities has potential merits, though none is without related challenges.