Indonesia: Recovery from Economic Social Collapse.

The collapse of the Indonesian economy during the period of the Asian financial and economic crisis of 1997/98, has been one of the most stunning and shocking events to have afflicted a developing country during the past several decades. This paper conducts a brief overview of recent macroeconomic developments in Indonesia, identifies some of the key factors behind the crisis, and outlines the IMF rescue program and the country's policy framework. The paper also discusses the short term economic and social prospects for the country, and policies essential for its recovery.INDONESIA ; ECONOMIC POLICY ; ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ; MACROECONOMICS

Competition Policy and SMEs in Vietnam

Vietnam stands at an important crossroad in its transition from a planned to market-oriented economy. Since the implementation of economic reform starting with Doi Moi in 1986, supplemented with further reform from 1989, the economy experienced rapid economic growth during the period of the 1990s until 1997. Since this time GDP growth has noticeably slowed, partly due to the onset of the financial and economic crisis to afflict the region in 1997-98, and partly due to a disconcerting, and related, decline in foreign direct investment flows. Despite this adverse development there has been a remarkable transformation of the economy that has seen it become more globally oriented, as exemplified by a rapid growth of both exports and imports and with a significant contribution to the economy from the foreign invested sector. For Vietnam to once again re-establish high and sustainable rates of economic growth will require further restructuring and reform efforts. In particular, this will require further progress in: establishing the institutional framework necessary for a market economy; ownership reform; encouraging foreign direct investment; allowing the private sector a larger role in the management and ownership of currently state owned enterprises; allowing unviable state owned assets to be liquidated and their assets put to more productive usage; and encouraging fair competition between different ownership forms, with the state, as a buyer, not discriminating against any form of ownership. These should form the core of the country's competition policy. This paper focuses upon the need for competition policy to encourage the nurturing, growth and development, specifically, of private sector small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Private entrepreneurship and enterprise reform can play a crucial role in the reform of the Vietnamese economy. Establishing a dynamic non-state manufacturing sector, with an emphasis on SMEs, will be a precondition for attaining the twin objectives of (1) restructuring and slimming state enterprises and (2) expanding non-farm employment and income opportunities. SMEs have the potential for job creation, contributing to sustainable economic development, allocating resources more efficiently, expanding exports, achieving a more equal distribution of incomes, and assist in rural and regional development.Vietnam, small and medium enterprises, SMEs, competition policy

Economic Transition: What Can Be Learned from China's Experience?

The last decade of this century has witnessed the transition of the formerly centrally planned economies of Europe and Asia to market economies, a process affecting some 1.7 billion people in 28 countries. While much agreement exists on the sorts of reform measures required, disagreement exists over their sequencing. The economic and social performance of these transition economies has varied considerably and for a variety of reasons, however China's performance, in particular, has been outstanding. The paper reviews the reform measures required for economic transition, and alternative sequencing approaches to these reforms. It conducts an overview of the performance of the transition economies, with focus placed upon the experience of the Chinese economy. An analysis of China's approach to economic reform, its key components, major outcomes and outstanding issues are discussed. Key lessons to be derived for other transition economies from China's experience are also presented.ECONOMIC REFORM

China's Township and Village Enterprises and their Evolving Business Alliances and Organizational Change.

The economic literature suggests that the success of China's WEs has arisen due to special circumstances. This paper argues, to the contrary, that they are likely to remain a significant feature of the Chinese economy, albeit in new organisational and ownership forms, for some time. Their evolving strategic business alliances, including that with science based research institutions, it is argued, will make this possible.OWNERSHIP ; BUSINESS ORGANIZATION ; ECONOMIC GROWTH

China's Economic Growth Slowdown: Causes, Consequences and Policy Options.

During its reform era China has experienced, and become accustomed to, high rates of economic growth, and rapid jobs growth particularly in the rural collectives and, more recently, private enterprises. Strong fixed asset investment and consumer demand in conjunction with a strong growth of net exports, provided the foundations for this. However during the latter part of 1997, after four years of monetary austerity measures, there were worrying signs that the growth of the economy was slowing considerably, primarily from a weakening of consumer and investment demand.ECONOMIC REFORM ; ECONOMIC GROWTH

Introduction: A Canada-U.S. Border for the 21st Century

Canada-U.S. border in the 21st centur

The effects of seasonal and latitudinal earth infrared radiance variations on ERBS attitude control

Analysis performed in the Flight Dynamics Facility by the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) Attitude Determination Support team illustrates the pitch attitude control motion and roll attitude errors induced by Earth infrared (IR) horizon radiance variations. IR scanner and inertial reference unit (IRU) pitch and roll flight data spanning 4 years of the ERBS mission are analyzed to illustrate the changes in the magnitude of the errors on time scales of the orbital period, months, and seasons. The analysis represents a unique opportunity to compare prelaunch estimates of radiance-induced attitude errors with flight measurements. As a consequence of this work the following additional information is obtained: an assessment of an average model of these errors and its standard deviation, a measurement to determine and verify previously proposed corrections to the current Earth IR radiance data base, and the possibility of a mean motion model derived from flight data in place of IRU data for ERBS fine attitude determination

OLIA: An open-source digital lock-in amplifier

The Open Lock-In Amplifier (OLIA) is a microcontroller-based digital lock-in amplifier built from a small number of inexpensive and easily sourced electronic components. Despite its small credit card-sized form-factor and low build-cost of around US$35, OLIA is a capable instrument that offers many features associated with far costlier commercial devices. Key features include dual-phase lock-in detection at multiple harmonic frequencies up to 50 kHz, internal and external reference modes, adjustable levels of input gain, a choice between low-pass filtering and synchronous filtering, noise estimation, and a comprehensive programming interface for remote software control. OLIA comes with an optional optical breakout board that allows noise-tolerant optical detection down to the 40-pW level. OLIA and its breakout board are released here as open hardware, with technical diagrams, full parts-lists, and source-code for the firmware

The New ‘Hidden Abode’: Reflections on Value and Labour in the New Economy

In a pivotal section of Capital, volume 1, Marx (1976: 279) notes that, in order to understand the capitalist production of value, we must descend into the ‘hidden abode of production’: the site of the labour process conducted within an employment relationship. In this paper we argue that by remaining wedded to an analysis of labour that is confined to the employment relationship, Labour Process Theory (LPT) has missed a fundamental shift in the location of value production in contemporary capitalism. We examine this shift through the work of Autonomist Marxists like Hardt and Negri, Lazaratto and Arvidsson, who offer theoretical leverage to prize open a new ‘hidden abode’ outside employment, for example in the ‘production of organization’ and in consumption. Although they can open up this new ‘hidden abode’, without LPT's fine-grained analysis of control/resistance, indeterminacy and structured antagonism, these theorists risk succumbing to empirically naive claims about the ‘new economy’. Through developing an expanded conception of a ‘new hidden abode’ of production, the paper demarcates an analytical space in which both LPT and Autonomist Marxism can expand and develop their understanding of labour and value production in today's economy. </jats:p