The last golden land? : Chinese private companies go to Africa

A new dynamic presence is spreading rapidly and widely across Africa: that of Chinese private enterprises. For these firms, Africa is ‘the last golden land’ of economic opportunity. Based on the most extensive survey to date of Chinese private firms, business associations and government officials across China and sub-Saharan Africa, this paper explores the critical questions of why these enterprises are investing in Africa? What are their perspectives on Africa’s investment climate? The study shows a growing number of firms that contradict the stereotype of Chinese firms in Africa. Pushed by intense competition within China’s domestic marketplace and pulled by the glint of new opportunities, many small, private manufacturing firms are heading to Africa quite independently of the Chinese government. They grasp this opportunity in a ‘three jump’ pattern. The first of these ‘three jumps’ are better known, from doing business within China to exporting to Africa; and then from exporting to Africa to investing in production in Africa. The third jump is less familiar: to investing in industry parks in Africa. Chinese firms cluster in new business parks, collaborating in coordinated production. Yet simultaneously, and contrary to popular perceptions, they are most concerned about the competition they face from other Chinese firms and not by competition from African or other expatriate firms in Africa. The Chinese business sector in Africa thus has growing ‘enclave’ characteristics: enterprises are located together in business parks, and simultaneously both competing with one another and cooperating and largely doing business with one another in the supply chain. They are relatively optimistic about the investment climate in Africa, especially those obstacles created by governments and public policy. However, Africa’s prospects for successfully harnessing the Chinese private firms to its development goals lies in the way each is adapting to their growing understanding of each other. Keywords: Chinese Private Enterprises; internationalisation; ‘Three Jump’ Pattern; enclave characteristics; Africa investment climate; development implication

Evaluation of the application of Phase Change Materials (PCM) on the envelope of a typical dwelling in the Mediterranean region

In this work the application of macroencapsulated Phase Change Materials (PCM) on the envelope of a typical dwelling in the Mediterranean region is evaluated. This is the first time PCMs are evaluated for application under the specific climatic conditions of Cyprus. The simulation process is carried out using Transient Systems Simulation software (TRNSYS). Two types of simulations have been carried out: the energy rate control test and the temperature level control test. The energy savings achieved by the addition of the PCM layer on the envelope of the test cubicle compared to the base case (no insulation) ranged between 21.7 and 28.6%. The optimum PCM case was also combined with a common thermal insulation topology in Cyprus. The results showed that the maximum energy savings per year was achieved by the combined case (66.2%). In the temperature level control test the constructions containing PCM performed better during summer. The results of the optimum PCM case and the combined case were economically evaluated using Life Cycle Cost (LCC). The results of this analysis showed that the PCM case has a very long payback period (14 ½ years) while this is changing when it is combined with insulation where the payback period is reduced to 7 ½ years

A global corporate census: publicly traded and close companies in 1910

In 1910 the world had almost half a million corporations, only one-hundredth of today's total. About one-fifth—with over half of corporate capital—were publicly tradable, higher portions than today. Most publicly quoted corporations traded in Europe and the British Empire, but most close (private) corporations operated in the US, which, until the 1940s, had more corporations per capita than anywhere else. The 83 countries surveyed here differed markedly in company numbers, corporate capital/GDP ratios, and average corporate size. Enclave economies—dominated by quoted (and often foreign-owned) companies—had the largest average sizes, while other nations had more varied mixes of large quoted corporations and close company small and medium enterprises

Brine utilisation for cooling and salt production in wind-driven seawater greenhouses:Design and modelling

Brine disposal is a major challenge facing the desalination industry. Discharged brines pollute the oceans and aquifers. Here is it proposed to reduce the volume of brines by means of evaporative coolers in seawater greenhouses, thus enabling the cultivation of high-value crops and production of sea salt. Unlike in typical greenhouses, only natural wind is used for ventilation, without electric fans. We present a model to predict the water evaporation, salt production, internal temperature and humidity according to ambient conditions. Predictions are presented for three case studies: (a) the Horn of Africa (Berbera) where a seawater desalination plant will be coupled to salt production; (b) Iran (Ahwaz) for management of hypersaline water from the Gotvand dam; (c) Gujarat (Ahmedabad) where natural seawater is fed to the cooling process, enhancing salt production in solar salt works. Water evaporation per face area of evaporator pad is predicted in the range 33 to 83 m3/m2·yr, and salt production up to 5.8 tonnes/m2·yr. Temperature is lowest close to the evaporator pad, increasing downwind, such that the cooling effect mostly dissipates within 15 m of the cooling pad. Depending on location, peak temperatures reduce by 8–16 °C at the hottest time of year

Does Foreign Direct Investment Stimulate New Firm Creation? In Search of Spillovers through Industrial and Geographical Linkages

This paper examines the spillover effects of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on the entrepreneurial activities of new firm creation through both industrial and geographical linkages. Using a dataset of 44,434 newly created small firms in 234 regions of South Korea in 2000–2004, this study finds that while the spillover impacts of FDI in the low-tech industry are positive and significant across almost all four possible combinations of the intra-/inter-regional and intra-/inter-sectoral channels, the impacts in the high-tech industry are largely intra-sectoral within the host region and across neighboring regions. Moreover, all statistically significant spillover effects follow an inverted ‘U’-shaped curvilinear trend

Report of the Task Force on Plantations Sector

Today there is no credible alternative facility available to a grower to meet the risks of price movements and the art of price risk management is unknown to the small growers. (In this entire report, the Task Force designates a grower upto 10ha of holding plantation land as a small grower). To provide this, the Task Force recommends that an insurance cover may be provided to the small growers and the periodical premium may be shared between the beneficiary and the Government – PSFT, roughly on 50-50 basis. URL:[http://commerce.nic.in/publications/PlantationReport.pdf?id=12].grower, risks, price movements, risk management, insurance, beneficiary, farmers, India, banking regulations, market access, crops, price stabilization, commodity,Agriculture, employment opportunities, export, stakeholders, coffee palntation, market economy