Benefits and Costs of vertical Separation in Network Industries. The Case of Railway Transport in the European Environment

The article is devoted to a phenomenon called vertical separation in the area of network industries. Vertical separation is understood as de-merging of infrastructure and delegating control over it to independent manager banned from operating on downstream markets which are subject to liberalisation. Arguments for and against these tendencies have been examined using the example of the European railway transport. The complete analysis presents vertical separation as a promising solution for the railway industry. One of the conditions for the success of this reform is forming of a close cooperative relationship, based on loyalty and trust, between the infrastructure manager and its clients – rail operators. Building such a relationship should be supported by the implemented regulatory policy.network industries, public utilities, railway transport, economic regulation, liberalisation, vertical separation

The Importance of Relationship development in the GCC region

The noun ‘Relationship’, is defined by Collins English Dictionary (2012) as 1. the state of being connected or related 2. association by blood or marriage; kinship 3. the mutual dealings, connections, or feelings that exist between two parties, countries, people, etc. a business relationship You can see from the above definition that there are several inferences that can be developed out of this single word. But is a relationship easily discernible? Are its dimensions opaque or transparent? Can it be easily contrasted simply by looking at it? Can it be evolved, grown, diminished, or separated? These are questions, if they are faced, they could make a simple word like ‘relationship’ look vague, abstract, and sometimes utterly confusing. In fact, discerning the intricate and delicate web of relationships is an art that requires not just looking at it from a single dimension but comprehending it through an experience in its entirety. Our client M/s Balfour Beatty Rail, UK (from now on as BBR) has chosen us as a three member team for our MBA company-based management project. Our aim is to analyse the importance of relationships in the Arab World, and analyse its critical dimensions. Currently, BBR’s culture, environment, organisational periphery, and business algorithms are different than what the Arab World requires as a pre-requisite for any business activity in the region. These pre-requisites are certain forms of relationships that are not easily understood in Western cultures. The region, as we have witnessed through our research, does accept Western ideas, concepts of development, and innovation but not at all at the expense of relationships (Hutchings and Weir, 2006). We felt very early in the project that these relationships, which are embedded in the socio-political and socio-cultural aspects of the region are seldom understood or even accepted by Western organisations and its people, normally resulting in bitter experiences of the region (Little, 2004). We also believe that BBR also has all the capabilities, competencies, legacy, and attributes that can help it be a winner in this region. But winning in the GCC market requires more than just competencies, abilities, or strengths (Kurian et al., 2012a). In our opinion the major ceteris paribus quotient of success within the region is about discerning and articulating the underlying relationships of the region (Hutchings and Weir, 2006), and so along with BBR’s competencies, resources, and presence the organisation needs to understand, accept, emulate, and develop viable relationships in the region. Our research identifies and analyses these elusive, opaque cultural aspects in the backdrop of evaluating the current and future rail infrastructure business development opportunities that have erupted in the region since 2006 and weaves together an argument for BBR’s immediate and long-term presence in the region along with the essential elements that should go with it

Analisis of actual situation of construction industry in Cambodia

[EN] This research, I would like specifically to write about Construction sector of Cambodia that show how about construction sector in Cambodia nowadays? In order to know about process or growth of economical development and showing some investment capitals for construction industrial sector but I also include writing about principal sectors of Cambodian economic situation. The construction industry is a most important contributor of main economy of Cambodia after garment, agriculture, tourism. The construction sector that has been booming since 2002, accounted for 7% of GDP in 2007. The construction sector was estimated to contribute about 7-8 percent a year to the country¿s GDP. The capital Phnom Penh has also witnessed a growth in the construction and real estate sector. Since 2009 the Royal Government of Cambodia has permitted foreigners and also investors can own condominiums. This condition has helped in attracting real estate investors from China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries. Construction in Cambodia has closely followed real estate development. Almost construction projects have been running in commercial and residential real estate property. (WB, April 2016) Real growth in 2015 is estimated to have reached 7 percent, compared to 7.1 percent in 2014. The garment sector, together with construction and services, are the main drivers of the economy. Growth is expected to remain strong in 2016, as recovering internal demand and dynamic garment exports offset stagnation in agriculture and softer growth in tourism. It is really for the construction industry nowadays in Cambodia is a highly competitive industry that we call construction boom with there are also an enormous amount of risk, particularly many conflicts, problems, adversity, and uncertainty. The construction projects are usually confronted with many conflicts, problems, and uncertainty due to a result of failure in selecting a competent contractor. To perform the project success, the owner's team has an important role to figure out these many conflicts and problems such as schedule delays, cost overrun, low productivity, and contract disputes by being able to evaluate the contractor¿s performance in the proper way. I think that they all are the main concern in order to achieve the successful projects.[CA] En este treball es presenta una descripció de l'estat actual del sector de la construcció de Cambotja. S'ha tractat de reflectir la situació econòmica i social del país per a situar en eixe context al sector de la construcció, i poder determinar les possibilitats d'inversió que poden haver-hi per a empreses estrangeres, les oportunitats de negoci que poden obrir-se, i les formes de licitació que s'empren l'est país. La construcció és un dels sectors que més contribuïx a l'economia de Cambotja després de la confecció, l'agricultura i el turisme. L'auge del sector ha sigut constant des de 2002, arribant a representar el 7% del PIB en 2007. Des de llavors s'ha mantingut entorn del 7-8 per cent a l'any del PIB del país. La capital Phnom Penh també ha sigut testimoni d'un creixement en el sector de la construcció i immobiliari. Des de 2009, El Govern Real de Cambotja ha permés que empreses estrangeres i altres inversors puguen ser propietàries de condominis. Esta condició ha ajudat a atraure inversors de Xina, Tailàndia, Malàisia, Singapur i altres països. La construcció a Cambotja ha seguit de prop el desenrotllament del sector immobiliari de béns arrels. Este tipus de projectes s'ha multiplicat en els últims anys, tant en promocions comercials com residencials, contribuint al creixement del país. Segons dades del Banc Mundial d'abril de 2016, ha aconseguit un creixement real en 2015 superior al 7 %, per segon any consecutiu. Les previsions per a 2016 són falagueres, tant en la construcció com en els altres sectors que van camí de convertir-se en els motors de l'economia a Cambotja, com són la confecció i els servicis. S'espera que el creixement continue sent fort en 2016, amb un important augment de la demanda interna i de les exportacions de peces de roba, compensant l'estancament desplaçament esperable en l'agricultura i el creixement més suau del turisme. Realment la indústria de la construcció s'ha convertit hui en dia a Cambotja en una indústria amb un enorme potencial, però encara subjecta a alts component de risc, en particular pels molts conflictes, i les altes incerteses que rodegen els projectes. Quasi sempre, a causa de les dificultats que creguen contractistes poc solvents i poc competents. Per a dur a terme amb èxit el projecte, l'equip de la propietat està obligat a assumir un paper important en la determinació de la capacitat del contractista per a evitar problemes derivats dels retards en el programa, excés de costos, baixa productivitat, i disputes de contractes per ser incapaç d'avaluar l'exercici del contractista en la forma correcta. En tot cas, la presència d'empreses estrangeres solvents que introduïsquen en el país formes modernes d'interactuar, i de gestionar els treballs, crearan un mercat atractiu als potencials inversors.[ES] En este trabajo se presenta una descripción del estado actual del sector de la construcción de Camboya. Se ha tratado de reflejar la situación económica y social del país para situar en ese contexto al sector de la construcción, y poder determinar las posibilidades de inversión que pueden haber para empresas extranjeras, las oportunidades de negocio que pueden abrirse, y las formas de licitación que se emplean el este país. La construcción es uno de los sectores que más contribuye a la economía de Camboya después de la confección, la agricultura y el turismo. El auge del sector ha sido constante desde 2002, llegando a representar el 7% del PIB en 2007. Desde entonces se ha mantenido en torno al 7-8 por ciento al año del PIB del país. La capital Phnom Penh también ha sido testigo de un crecimiento en el sector de la construcción e inmobiliario. Desde 2009, el Gobierno Real de Camboya ha permitido que empresas extranjeras y otros inversores puedan ser propietarias de condominios. Esta condición ha ayudado a atraer inversores de China, Tailandia, Malasia, Singapur y otros países. La construcción en Camboya ha seguido de cerca el desarrollo del sector inmobiliario de bienes raíces. Este tipo de proyectos se ha multiplicado en los últimos años, tanto en promociones comerciales como residenciales, contribuyendo al crecimiento del país. Según datos del Banco Mundial de abril de 2016, ha alcanzado un crecimiento real en 2015 superior al 7 %, por segundo año consecutivo. Las previsiones para 2016 son halagüeñas, tanto en la construcción como en los otros sectores que van camino de convertirse en los motores de la economía en Camboya, como son la confección y los servicios. Se espera que el crecimiento siga siendo fuerte en 2016, con un importante aumento de la demanda interna y de las exportaciones de prendas de vestir, compensando el estancamiento desplazamiento esperable en la agricultura y el crecimiento más suave del turismo. Realmente la industria de la construcción se ha convertido hoy en día en Camboya en una industria con un enorme potencial, pero todavía sujeta a altos componente de riesgo, en particular por los muchos conflictos, y las altas incertidumbres que rodean los proyectos. Casi siempre, debido a las dificultades que crean contratistas poco solventes y poco competentes. Para llevar a cabo con éxito el proyecto, el equipo de la propiedad está obligado a asumir un papel importante en la determinación de la capacidad del contratista para evitar problemas derivados de los retrasos en el programa, exceso de costes, baja productividad, y disputas de contratos por ser incapaz de evaluar el desempeño del contratista en la forma correcta. En todo caso, la presencia de empresas extranjeras solventes que introduzcan en el país formas modernas de interactuar, y de gestionar los trabajos, crearán un mercado atractivo a los potenciales inversores.Hour, V. (2016). Análisis de la situación actual del sector de construcción en Camboya. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/73988.Archivo delegad

Insurance of Cyber Risks in International Transport

The international transport of goods, passengers and luggage is recently facing the threat of cyberattacks. The article is focused on the analysis of the possible cyber risks in the field of the international transport and their management created by the international governmental and non-governmental organisations. The international regulation of the cybersecurity has only recommendatory character and will be subject to future development. That’s the reason why should carriers pay greater attention to all possible cyber security measures. As the instrument of the reduction and mitigation of cyber risks could be used cyber-insurance. The insurance companies are offering insurance cover mainlyon individual base corresponding to the extent of protection required by the policyholder

5G-PPP Technology Board:Delivery of 5G Services Indoors - the wireless wire challenge and solutions

The 5G Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) has focused its research and innovation activities mainly on outdoor use cases and supporting the user and its applications while on the move. However, many use cases inherently apply in indoor environments whereas their requirements are not always properly reflected by the requirements eminent for outdoor applications. The best example for indoor applications can be found is the Industry 4.0 vertical, in which most described use cases are occurring in a manufacturing hall. Other environments exhibit similar characteristics such as commercial spaces in offices, shopping malls and commercial buildings. We can find further similar environments in the media & entertainment sector, culture sector with museums and the transportation sector with metro tunnels. Finally in the residential space we can observe a strong trend for wireless connectivity of appliances and devices in the home. Some of these spaces are exhibiting very high requirements among others in terms of device density, high-accuracy localisation, reliability, latency, time sensitivity, coverage and service continuity. The delivery of 5G services to these spaces has to consider the specificities of the indoor environments, in which the radio propagation characteristics are different and in the case of deep indoor scenarios, external radio signals cannot penetrate building construction materials. Furthermore, these spaces are usually “polluted” by existing wireless technologies, causing a multitude of interreference issues with 5G radio technologies. Nevertheless, there exist cases in which the co-existence of 5G new radio and other radio technologies may be sensible, such as for offloading local traffic. In any case the deployment of networks indoors is advised to consider and be planned along existing infrastructure, like powerlines and available shafts for other utilities. Finally indoor environments expose administrative cross-domain issues, and in some cases so called non-public networks, foreseen by 3GPP, could be an attractive deployment model for the owner/tenant of a private space and for the mobile network operators serving the area. Technology-wise there exist a number of solutions for indoor RAN deployment, ranging from small cell architectures, optical wireless/visual light communication, and THz communication utilising reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. For service delivery the concept of multi-access edge computing is well tailored to host virtual network functions needed in the indoor environment, including but not limited to functions supporting localisation, security, load balancing, video optimisation and multi-source streaming. Measurements of key performance indicators in indoor environments indicate that with proper planning and consideration of the environment characteristics, available solutions can deliver on the expectations. Measurements have been conducted regarding throughput and reliability in the mmWave and optical wireless communication cases, electric and magnetic field measurements, round trip latency measurements, as well as high-accuracy positioning in laboratory environment. Overall, the results so far are encouraging and indicate that 5G and beyond networks must advance further in order to meet the demands of future emerging intelligent automation systems in the next 10 years. Highly advanced industrial environments present challenges for 5G specifications, spanning congestion, interference, security and safety concerns, high power consumption, restricted propagation and poor location accuracy within the radio and core backbone communication networks for the massive IoT use cases, especially inside buildings. 6G and beyond 5G deployments for industrial networks will be increasingly denser, heterogeneous and dynamic, posing stricter performance requirements on the network. The large volume of data generated by future connected devices will put a strain on networks. It is therefore fundamental to discriminate the value of information to maximize the utility for the end users with limited network resources

An alternative development model in Africa inspired by China?

Cette thèse de doctorat cherche à savoir s’il existe un modèle de développement alternatif inspiré par la Chine en Afrique, et dans l’affirmative, comment et pourquoi il est diffusé dans certains pays et moins dans d’autres. Cette recherche contribue à combler une lacune dans la littérature sur l’effet des engagements de la Chine en Afrique en matière de modèle de développement. Mon argument principal qu’un tel modèle a plus de chances d’émerger dans un État autoritaire disposant de la marge de manœuvre permettant de mettre un accent particulier sur les infrastructures et l’industrialisation. Je suppose que les pays avec un État développemental, des héritages marxistes et une influence coloniale relativement faible ont tendance à adopter davantage le modèle de développement alternatif, alors que les États neoliberaux sur lesquels l’ancienne puissance coloniale a toujours la mainmise est moins à même de prendre le modèle. J'élucide mes hypothèses à travers une comparaison entre l’Éthiopie et le Sénégal. L’Éthiopie est un pays qui produit ce modèle de développement de manière volontaire et globale, tandis que le Sénégal l’adopte de manière modérée, voire minimale. Les hypothèses sont finalement testées avec plusieurs autres cas de pays africains. Cette recherche est principalement basée sur la méthode comparative et le traçage des processus. Le premier chapitre comporte mon cadre théorique et ma méthodologie. Je présente les caractéristiques de ce modèle de développement alternatif sur la base de mes observations et la revue de littérature dans le deuxième chapitre. J'expose deux études de cas principales au chapitre trois, suivi de mes explications de leurs situations différentes au chapitre quatre. Le chapitre cinque propose brièvement plusieurs autres études de cas tests et finalement synthétise les résultats de mes recherches, tout en rappelant le contexte international et les contraintes de la diffusion du modèle en question.This Ph.D. dissertation seeks to verify if an alternative development model inspired by China is emerging in Africa and if so, how and why it is diffused in some countries. This dissertation helps to fill a gap in the literature on the effect that China’s engagement in Africa has had regarding development model. I argue that countries with a developmental state, Marxist legacies and relatively weak colonial heritages tend to embrace more the alternative development model because the state, often authoritarian, is able to devise autonomous development, with special emphasis on infrastructure and industrialization. I theorize that the neoliberal state still under control of the former colonial master someway is less apt to take the model. I assess my arguments on the intrinsic and external conditions facilitating the diffusion of the alternative development model through a comparison of Ethiopia and Senegal. Ethiopia is a country on the path of this development model in a voluntary and comprehensive way while Senegal adopts it in a moderate, if not minimal way. Later, the hypotheses are tested with more cases of African countries. This research is mainly based on the comparative method and process-tracing. The first chapter is my theoretical framework and methodology. I present the alternative development model based on my observations and literature review in the second chapter. I expose two main case studies in chapter 3, followed by my explanation of the different situations of the two cases in chapter 4. In chapter 5, I make several more cases studies briefly with a regional vision and finally synthesize my research findings