Building government competitiveness in a post financial crisis: Comparing Malaysia and Indonesia from global competitiveness index perspective

The consequences of the 2007-2009 global financial crisis have been felt in virtually every economy. Most countries experiencing crisis would agree that it is government’s ultimate role to build competitiveness. This paper aims to compare country’s competitiveness between Malaysia and Indonesia, and governments’ effort in these countries to achieve that competitiveness. By competitiveness, we mean that government must do extremely well in managing and sustaining natural and human resources. Ranking 24th and 54th respectively in the Global Competitiveness Index 2009-2010, Malaysia and Indonesia require strategic reform and transformation, political and government programs to promote high levels of prosperity. Specifically, in this paper we will compare how Malaysia and Indonesia, under the leadership of Najib Tun Razak and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono respectively, build their competitiveness through economic, political and administrative reforms. Malaysia and Indonesia, each have put forward new transformation plans in order to build competitiveness. This paper will analyze current achievements and review challenges to both countries’ recent transformation plans from the perspective of Global Competitiveness Report

Investigation on the Determinants of Turkish Export-Boom in 2000s

This paper investigates the causes of Turkish export-boom after 2000 in the manufacturing sector. We mainly concentrate on cost and productivity aspects of the production in the manufacturing sector. Effects of productivity, wage and exchange rate are analyzed in the framework of the augmented unit labor cost model. Following the Edwards and Golub (2004) paper we use the dynamic panel data techniques for the analysis. In addition, the importance of the above mentioned factors is examined for the rising and declining sectors. We find that manufacturing export is negatively related to the unit labor cost (ULC). Decomposition of ULC into its two components also shows that an improvement in productivity increases export while an increase in nominal wages decreases it. We also find that nominal wage is an important factor in the declining sectors while productivity is the stimulus in rising sectors.Manufacturing export; unit labor cost; wage; productivity; real effective exchange rate

INDUSTRIAL ENLARGEMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS INDEX

Over the last decade Slovenia has achieved clear and positive macro-economic results that have placed it among the most sucessful transitions countries. The basic indicators show that it has been integrating and catching up with European Union member states at an ever increasing pace. Despite this, the challenges of a global economy-where only innovation and entrepreneurship can compete succesfully, and the relative lag in the competitive capacity of our economy behind numerous other countries in the world rankings, require drastic changes to be made to Slovenia’s economic structure to adopt as much as possible to the demans of the knowledge based economy. That means the transformation from an economy with low added value whose competitiveness is based on low operative costs into an economy based on production and service activities whose competitive advantages are high added value, quality, innovation and entrapreneurship. Entrepreneurship and the diffusion of innovation, which considerably increase the speed at which new high-quality and low cost products replace existing products, are two driving forces of the knowledge based economy and they are changing the economic structure of leading countries....national competitiveness, benchmarking, development strategy, industrial policy

Nonparametric approach to evaluation of economic and social development in the EU28 member states by DEA efficiency

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology is used in this study for a comparison of the dynamic efficiency of European countries over the last decade. Moreover, efficiency analysis is used to determine where resources are distributed efficiently and/or were used efficiently/inefficiently under factors of competitiveness extracted from factor analysis. DEA measures numerical grades of the efficiency of economic processes within evaluated countries and, therefore, it becomes a suitable tool for setting an efficient/inefficient position of each country. Most importantly, the DEA technique is applied to all (28) European Union (EU) countries to evaluate their technical and technological efficiency within the selected factors of competitiveness based on country competitiveness index in the 2000-2017 reference period. The main aim of the paper is to measure efficiency changes over the reference period and to analyze the level of productivity in individual countries based on the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). Empirical results confirm significant disparities among European countries and selected periods 2000-2007, 2008-2011, and 2012-2017. Finally, the study offers a comprehensive comparison and discussion of results obtained by MPI that indicate the EU countries in which policy-making authorities should aim to stimulate national development and provide more quality of life to the EU citizens.Web of Science122art. no. 7

Transformation of agricultural sector of Ukrainian economics: some social and economic results

Agricultural sector of Ukrainian economics is in the period of transformations, which are accompanied by increase of negative tendencies in the social sphere: depopulation of significant territories, worsening of living conditions for rural population, increasing of mass poverty, growing unemployment, sharp income differentiation. High social losses against a background of development of large-scale commercial production, land concentration and capitalization of production are leading to increase of social tensions in society thus hampering country's exit from the crisis. Ukrainian economic science and practice of reforms hasn't been ready that social processes in the economics under reforms are complicated and inconsistent: some of them are contributing to economic increase, other vice versa are influencing in the opposite way. Currently the relevant task is development of the efficient social policy promoting structural and institutional rebuilding of economics, stimulating sustainable economic growth. In order to solve this task it's very important to bring economics out of shadow, which is based on humiliatingly low level of wages in Ukraine, prearranged by the inadequate shares of income distribution between the labor and the capital. Processes of land concentration, attraction of industrial capital and creation of large-scale integrated commercial structures in agricultural sector are strengthening shadowing of economics and increasing disproportions in such distribution. With the existence of the shadow economics nominal and real increase of salaries doesn't necessarily mean increase of standards of living for country's population. For instance, average monthly wage in Ukrainian agriculture grew 4,5 times from 1999 to 2006, but the share of wages in Gross added value (GAV) dropped almost two times. In the industry wage increase 5,3 times leaded to wage drop in by 14,3% GAV. And only in service and construction the respective ratio grew by 4,3% and 3%. In the country with the transitional economics it's impossible to improve standards of living for population by simple wage increase without simultaneous actions aimed at bringing the economics out of the shadows. The biggest threat of low standards of living of Ukrainians is that there're falling numbers of rural population and large territories are being depopulated. Identification of main trends for development of modern society and social factors of economic growth should promote identification of main directions for social and economic policy of the state during establishment of new rural way of living in Ukraine. Keywords: agricultural transformations, rural development policy, depopulation of rural territories, social factors of economic growth.agricultural transformations, rural development policy, depopulation of rural territories, social factors of economic growth., Agricultural and Food Policy,

Engineering impacting social, economic and working environment

Engineers create, design and build, bringing solutions to problems and transforming the environment for betterment of life. Engineers are responsible for the development of science and technology once they design tools, systems and instruments that make possible the acquisition of knowledge in a vast amount of fields. Engineering is responsible for the deep transformation of human relations in the first decade of the 21st century, changing also education paradigms as well as business. A new era in working environment has started, which characteristics are peculiar due to new communications, mobility and globalization. These aspects lead to the fact that now it is also important to train engineers with tools that enable them to act in a working environment that demands a very flexible and innovative mind in order to be inserted in and to keep up with the work market. Knowledge in Basic Sciences, Basic Sciences of Engineering and Specifics of Engineering are fundamental for the training of an engineer. However, the insertion in labor market sometimes demands some practice or experience that should also be provided by the engineering schools. Taking this into account, the Engineering Education Research Team of COPEC – Science and Education Research Council has designed and is implementing a program for an engineering school which main goal is to prepare engineers for the future work market, the engineer for the future. The idea was born due to the very competitive environment that Engineering Schools are facing recently and the fact that fewer young students are choosing engineering as a career to pursue despite work market demand for engineers

Large-scale transformation of socio-economic institutions - comparative case studies on CEECs: interim report

The general idea is to follow the Varieties-of-Capitalism literature on generating indicators on the economic systems actually implemented. However, this literature mostly concentrates on the enterprise (or micro) level in traditional OECD countries, categorizing countries between the extremes: liberal market economies and controlled market economies. It largely neglects the role of the government spending, the transition of former socialist countries and developing countries, and the political process behind the choice of an economic system. We broaden the perspective by combining the Varieties-of-Capitalism with the Worlds-of-Welfare-States literature in order to provide a comprehensive view on government activities in transition. With the perspective of our contribution to WWWforEurope, we concentrate especially on social welfare, innovation systems, macro stability, and, of course, how these aspects work together (or not) and are explained by the political background. We will a cluster analysis for OECD and European transition countries and comparative country studies on Slovakia and Hungary. These countries are of special relevance because they represent extreme cases (Slovakia: significant switch in transition path towards star performer, Hungary: muddling towards problem case). One part of the comparative work concentrates on the comparison of Slovakia with other new EU members that also face to challenge of state building after dissolution of one or the other sort (Czech Rep. and the Baltics). The other part of the comparative work concentrates on Hungary in comparison with the other EU-CEECs. A broad based comparison will most likely be possible on available data only. The possibility for deeper qualitative comparisons will have to be determined during the project. The comparative components will focus on the macroeconomic background (Slovakia) and the welfare state (Hungary) respectively. Cluster analysis (initially forseen for MS25) and comparative country studies allows us to draw conclusions for the EU by providing a first comparison of the position of CEECs with respect to the “old” EU members, most interestingly the southern crisis countries that are often categorized into a form called mixed market economies with sometimes contradicting institutional set ups. Do CEECs converge towards prototype models or do they (still) constitute own models

The countryside in urbanized Flanders: towards a flexible definition for a dynamic policy

The countryside, the rural area, the open space, … many definitions are used for rural Flanders. Everyone makes its own interpretation of the countryside, considering it as a place for living, working or recreating. The countryside is more than just a geographical area: it is an aggregate of physical, social, economic and cultural functions, strongly interrelated with each other. According to international and European definitions of rural areas there would be almost no rural area in Flanders. These international definitions are all developed to be used for analysis and policy within their specific context. They are not really applicable to Flanders because of the historical specificity of its spatial structure. Flanders is characterized by a giant urbanization pressure on its countryside while internationally rural depopulation is a point of interest. To date, for every single rural policy initiative – like the implementation of the European Rural Development Policy – Flanders used a specifically adapted definition, based on existing data or previously made delineations. To overcome this oversupply of definitions and delineations, the Flemish government funded a research project to obtain a clear and flexible definition of the Flemish countryside and a dynamic method to support Flemish rural policy aims. First, an analysis of the currently used definitions of the countryside in Flanders was made. It is clear that, depending on the perspective or the policy context, another definition of the countryside comes into view. The comparative study showed that, according to the used criteria, the area percentage of Flanders that is rural, varies between 9 and 93 per cent. Second, dynamic sets of criteria were developed, facilitating a flexible definition of the countryside, according to the policy aims concerned. This research part was focused on 6 policy themes, like ‘construction, maintenance and management of local (transport) infrastructures’ and ‘provision of (minimum) services (education, culture, health care, …)’. For each theme a dynamic set of criteria or indicators was constructed. These indicators make it possible to show where a policy theme manifests itself and/or where policy interventions are possible or needed. In this way every set of criteria makes up a new definition of rural Flanders. This method is dynamic; new data or insights can easily be incorporated and new criteria sets can be developed if other policy aims come into view. The developed method can contribute to a more region-oriented and theme-specific rural policy and funding mechanism

Catalyzing Regional Economic Transformation: Lessons from Funder Collaboration in Northeast Ohio

Northeast Ohio -- home to four major metropolitan areas, more than 4 million people and a $180 billion regional economy -- faced in 2004 what the Cleveland Plain Dealer dubbed a "Quiet Crisis." Employment growth in the region had lagged the rest of the nation for the prior two decades and manufacturing's share of total regional employment had fallen by half. The population was declining and poverty was on the rise, particularly in urban areas.Community and private foundations were waging an uphill battle responding to the increasing needs for social services that were straining the resources of nonprofits in the region. Philanthropic organizations were quickly coming to the realization that the only way to meaningfully address the challenges of poverty and unemployment would be through a more holistic effort to promote regional economic opportunity. In response, a set of philanthropic institutions from across Northeast Ohio launched the Fund for Our Economic Future (the "Fund") in 2004 to promote a regional approach for increasing economic prosperity and opportunity. The original 28 Fund members committed a total of$30 million over three years to begin restoring regional economic competitiveness through pooled grantmaking, research and convening. The Fund's experience produced several lessons about fostering effective collaboration that apply to business, nonprofit and government leaders partnering in any region to address systemic issues. The report provides details in each of these areas

Restructuring the English Working Class for Global Competitiveness

This paper considers the latest developments in an ongoing attempt to restructure the English working class. It divides this project into two distinct phases. The first is associated with destructive policies to undermine the political, social and institutional structures of the working class embedded in the post- War social democratic and compromise. The paper then goes on to show how New Labour initially sought to rebuild the working class in the image of global competitiveness, at the outset of the second phase to restructure the English working class. The paper argues that the present moment in policy development represents a watershed in this second-phase. The aim now is to contain and overcome some of the contradictions thrown up by New Labour’s early policies and to raise the raise the workforce in terms of its position in the Global Division of Labour. To do so, there is a need to move up those sections of the working class currently working in, and competing for, low-value and low paid ‘entry-level’ work, in order to create space for largely inactive elements of the latent workforce to move into. The project is pre-figured by a wholesale acceptance of the politics of global competitiveness. The discussion is undertaken via an analysis of three key sets of policy documents associated with the Harker Review of Child Poverty, the Leitch Review of Skills and the Freud Review of Welfare