Today's world is shaped by the processes of globalization and economic liberalization, which dominantly determine the social, economic, environmental and political conditions. As part of these processes, there is an increasing rhetoric about the activities of the state to build a legal system 'ideal for attracting' foreign investment, to establish state institutions in charge of 'attracting foreign investment', and to create a business environment conducive to 'attract' foreign investment. Faced with citizen requests and pressure to create conditions for employment, in initial negotiations with foreign investors state, authorities articulate their willingness to meet these requests. The affirmative stance of governments towards the investments of multinational companies easily can be changed. Once the investment begins, the pledges made by one contracting party to the other may prove to be unrealistic and economically unjustified. The tensions generated between the host state and foreign investors jeopardize the foreign investment contract concluded by the contracting parties. Further fulfillment of contractual obligations from foreign investment contracts will be possible if the contracting parties resolve the resulting conflict through mutual negotiations. Through negotiations, the contracting parties can depreciate the impact of the changed circumstances, including a range of economic, political, legislative and environmental conditions. Initiating negotiations at the right time and conducting them in good faith may lead to a solution. Even if an agreement is not reached, the renegotiation may contribute to a better understanding of contractual partners and redefining the positions of the contracting parties.
Nanotechnology is a common word these days, although only 15 years ago it was a quite obscure term used almost exclusively in scientific community. It is a fact that nanotechnology is widely present today with numerous applications, especially regarding novel materials. This is a technology that draws a lot of attention not only in the scientific community but also among investors, governments and industry. There is a great deal of expectations connected with it and especially, amongst others, concerning sustainable energy production. This paper briefly explores some of possible implementations of nanotechnology for new and improved energy conversion methods, considering a need for this to be done without doing harm to our environment. Focus is placed on advanced photovoltaic and hydrogen production technology. ; Nanotechnology is a common word these days, although only 15 years ago it was a quite obscure term used almost exclusively in scientific community. It is a fact that nanotechnology is widely present today with numerous applications, especially regarding novel materials. This is a technology that draws a lot of attention not only in the scientific community but also among investors, governments and industry. There is a great deal of expectations connected with it and especially, amongst others, concerning sustainable energy production. This paper briefly explores some of possible implementations of nanotechnology for new and improved energy conversion methods, considering a need for this to be done without doing harm to our environment. Focus is placed on advanced photovoltaic and hydrogen production technology.
The aim of the research was to determine the effects of globalization on the international business Serbia, as well as the contribution of FDI to the current socio-economic development of Serbia in the process of joining the European Union and anticipating numerous challenges. The entire research is based on the simultaneous use of different methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and synthesis and comparison. Analysis of the situation in the domestic economy, it was concluded that met only some of the prerequisites for a higher level of foreign direct investment because foreign direct investments in Serbia have not yielded the expected results. The results show that the process of priva-tization contributed to the revival of several forms of investment: domestic investors, foreign direct investment, loans and capital mar-kets. To unapredula and improve the investment climate, it is necessary to remove administrative barriers to foreign investment through amen-dments to existing legislation, the establishment and strengthening of relevant institutions, as well as the further development of infrastructu-re. With this in mind it is necessary to develop new comparative advan-tages in exports, based on technological modernization of the economy and improving the concept of education, management and organizatio-nal knowledge and experience. The results provide the identification of all the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the globalization of the economy and foreign direct investment.
Foreign investment fund in the world has multiplied several times in the last twodecades. However, growing trend of foreign investments fl ow has been broken by the recentfi nancial crisis in the world. Lower infl ow of foreign investments into the developingcountries has made the funding of their current accounts diffi cult, because it becamemore diffi cult for them to get loans in the international capital market. Most net importersof capital are net debtors in the international capital market, which made them increaseinvestment attractiveness for international investors. Thus they tried to decrease theirexposure to the loan market. Although foreign investments are desirable source of fundingthe current account defi cit, net infl ow of these funds generates negative balance in theincome account and puts pressure on the balance of payments of the country. World investmentfl ows have returned to the upward trend in 2013.This paper analyses foreign investments fl ow in the world, by groups of countries.The groups of countries, the subject analysis of this paper, are: Asia, Latin America,Africa, countries in transition and developed countries. The most signifi cant countriesthat are net exporters of capital in the world are the European Union and USA, while thebiggest importers are the growing Asian countries. Starting period for this analysis is1990, and ending period is 2013. Therefore, time series of the analysis covers economiccycles, i.e. rise from the nineties of the last century, then the period of global fi nancial andeconomical crisis that lasted all the ay until the end of 2012.
Each day we make decisions, draw conclusions or resolve problems. The environment in which we make decisions is complex and dynamic and yet it influences the whole process as much as one's knowledge, experience, etc. In these situations, the decision making analysis stands out which provides a logic base for defining possible alternatives and the choice of an optimal option from the possible solutions. The decision making analysis helps the decision maker to choose the optimal option in line with his knowledge, reasoning, beliefs and preferences. When there are several criteria the decision making is ambiguous and one needs to find the optimal or the most efficient solution. The multi-criteria decision making can be multi-purposeful. In case the alternatives are explicitly defined and quantified we are dealing with the multi-attribute decision making. The criteria values for the analyzed alternatives can be qualitative and quantitative; therefore, the qualitative ones have to be quantified. Deciding on the location is one of the key elements of logistics and of the importance of the decision making process used by the companies in order to determine where to locate the facility is a decision of crucial importance to all logistic elements and the entire business development of the company. Further on, the contemporary economic, competitive and technological conditions and the business environment comprise a dynamic category, so the currently optimal location may not be optimal in the future. Companies use qualitative and quantitative criteria while deciding on the location of the factory. When deciding on the location of the factory one conducts a detailed analysis due to the dynamic business environment. Constant changes in the environment influence business adjustments. On the contrary, the logistic facilities and their locations are static and are not subject to alteration in a short period of time and in such a way respond to the business environment changes. While making such a decision one needs to use new methodologies and contemporary tools as a decision making support in order to adequately respond to the business environment changes and secure the high quality decision making by taking into account quantitative and qualitative criteria which are important for making a decision on a choice of a location. From the very beginning, local self-governments, worldwide as well as in Serbia, had different roles in the economic development. Local self-governments usually dealt with administrative procedures with no active part in the economic development. By establishing legal grounds local self-governments started improving the business environment and providing support to the business community, but also actively attracting foreign direct investments which have proven to be the key activity of the local economic development. Identification and understanding of the industrial location decision making process within the companies has been identified as a crutial activity which the local self-governments can use in improving the business environment and recruitment of direct investments. On the basis on the prioritization of the quantitative and qualitative decision making criteria in the process of selection a location, local self-governments can improve their business environment if resources are being used optimally and in such a way they support the local economic development by assisting the business community and attracting direct investments. In this paper we established a model which, using the method for decision making in the case of optimization of the industrial location decision making, enables efficient use of the resources of local economic development. The model will enable the identification of criteria / determinant of locations that should be invested in order to promote local economic development, on the basis of a comparison of local governments and types of potential investors. Use of standard methods of multiattribute analysis gives the possibility of a subjective approach to the researcher who must determine in advance the criteria weights, while the application of the model presented in this paper avoids the subjectivity and objectifies the process of preference, a combination of criteria DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis,) and multiattribute analysis methods (AHP, ELECTRE, PROMETHEE, TOPSIS). Within the dissertation, survey conducted, analysed local governments (alternatives) in terms of fulfilling the criteria (location determinants), within which each local government alone determines the criteria weight based on survey of types of potential investors. A comparative analysis of the results of these studies, where other various methods for decision making can be also used, identified the best method, among selected that are the best known and most used, and the result of the dissertation will determine the importance of the location determinants, which will enable to policymakers in field of local economic development, investment promotion and improving business environment at all levels, through the use of the proposed model of efficient planning, the opportunity to efficiently and cost-effectively use the resources at their disposal.
