Revisiting the Competitiveness of Romanian Manufacturing Industry

Since the early 1990s the Romanian manufacturing industry has improved in many ways. This headway concerns the labour-intensive sector rather than the technology-intensive one. Apart from local entrepreneurship, foreign direct investments (FDI) have been instrumental in enhancing industrial competitiveness. The Lisbon Agenda revival and Romania’s EU accession will be further inducements for Western businesses to shift production here to fight back both low-cost producers (typically from emerging Asia) and more quality-oriented producers (typically from OECD countries). Hopefully, the FDI spillover effects will send positive vibrations across the economy, and tone down the asymmetry at the core of the manufacturing industry.competitiveness, manufacturing industries, FDI spillovers

ABOUT THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

The economic crisis that the global economy is facing nowadays has started with the financial crisis of the U.S financial system. We are talking about an unprecedented speculative boom at global level which has overcome the previous booms created by the deconomic crisis, exchange rate, metal reserves

THE COMPETITIVENESS OF EMU MEMBER STATES IN THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

In the context of the financial crisis the imbalances in the euro area have been underlined. The issue had been previously debated during the years preceding the financial crisis, but the strong global economic expansion and the ongoing economic integration within the euro area partly masked the problems arising from these differential developments. This paper analyses the advantages and disavantages of the monetary union before and during the financial crisis and focuses on identifying solutions to correct the structural problems that are at the root of the economic divergencies within the euro area. Another issue that we discuss is how did price competitiveness diverged from one euro-area member state to another since the introduction of the euro, causing gains in price competitiveness for a small group of countries and significant losses for a larger group. The issue of competitiveness is essential for Romania as we are heading towards joining the euro zone.EMU, competitiveness, structural problems

UTILISATION OF BENCHMARKING TECHNIQUES FOR FUNDAMENTING DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN ROMANIA

Benchmarking is a method used to measure the products, services and processes in comparison to an entity recognized as a leader in terms of performance of its operations. Used in the years 1970-1980 in the strategic management of the company currently has proven to be increasingly useful in many areas, including in international analysis models. In the European Union benchmarking indicators are used especially in the digital economy and as perspective indicators for 2011-2015 (Eurostat, Database). In the introduction we present and define forms of benchmarking, as well as a number of specific terms, which contribute to a better understanding of the content of this scientific work. Time series are used to highlight advances in labor productivity in EU countries, and the analysis is particularized for two countries: Romania and Germany. Quantitative data were collected from the source Eurostat website. A comprehensive indicator at macroeconomic level is resource productivity, representing GDP in relation with domestic consumption of material (DCM). DCM measures the amount of materials used directly by an economy. It is presented in tabular form for all European Union countries and Switzerland, as evolving over a period of eight years. Benchmarking method is used to highlight some differences (gaps) between EU countries regarding productivity and particularly the one between Germany and Romania is highlighted, concerning the performance of manufacturing industries. It is expected that this gap will diminish. The gap was highlighted by relevant graphics and interpretations. The second part of the paper focuses on comparative analysis of factors productivity using the production function. We analyze labor and capital productivity and other factors that determine the level of production. For highlighting the contribution of the labour factor we used the number of hours worked, considering that it reflects the analyzed phenomenon more realistically. For highlighting the contribution of capital factor we used as an indicator the capital stock in euros, available for Germany in the Eurostat database, and for Romania in the Statistical Yearbook 2009, expressed in RON, as comparable prices and then converted into euros at the average rate calculated by the NBR . The results for the entire manufacturing industry represent the basis for further expansion of benchmarking to the main components of this industry, especially automobile building, transportation vechicules, furniture, clothing, leather chemical, etc.., providing a scientific basis to fundament the economic policies including commercial ones.benchmarking, labour productivity, resource productivity, capital productivity, sustainable development strategy

O contribuţie a lui Paul Krugman: introducerea competiţiei imperfecte în modelul formalizat al comerţului internaţional

The Heckscher-Ohlin theory also did not adequately explain why rich entities such as Europe and the United States, which had very similar endowments of capital and labor, traded more intensively than those with very dissimilar endowments.european economic models, globalisation, increasing returns, general equilibrium models, monopolistic competition models, intra-industry specialization, inter-industry specialization, international trade theory, new trade theory, agglomeration economies, new economic geography, transport costs, concentration of production

WHY DO LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORT MATTER FOR DEVELOPMENT

In face of the challenges of global competition, business firms are concentrating more on the needs of customers and seeking ways to reduce costs, improve quality and meet the ever-rising expectation of their customers. To these ends, many of them have identified logistics as an area to build cost and service advantages. Logistical activities have always been vital to organizations, and therefore business logistics and supply chain management represents a synthesis of many concepts, principles, and methods from the more traditional areas of production, purchasing, transportation, economics, as well as from the disciplines of applied mathematics, and organizational behaviour. It concentrates on important activities of management such as planning, organizing, and controlling, and also on a three-way relationship of related transportation, inventory, and location strategies, which are at the heart of good logistics planning and decision making. Selecting a good logistics strategy may yield a competitive advantage. Transportation provides the flow of materials, products and persons between production facilities, warehouses, distribution centers, terminals and customer locations. The progress in techniques and management principles improves the moving load, delivery speed, service quality, operation costs, the usage of facilities and energy saving. A strong system needs a clear frame of logistics and a proper transport implements and techniques to link the producing procedures. The transportation takes a crucial part in the management of logistic. Without well-developed transportation systems, logistics could not bring its advantages into full play. A good transport system in logistics activities could provide better logistics efficiency, reduce operation cost, and promote service quality. The process determines the efficiency of moving products and energy saving. Improvements in transportation and logistics make valuable contribution to production and consumption activities.That’s why the objective of this paper is to define and clarify the role of transportation in logistics and of logistics in development, for the reference of further improvement.The present study was undertaken to define and understand the elementary views of logistics and its various applications and the relationships between logistics and transportation

EU ADVANCEMENT WITHIN THE WORLD TRADE: AN OVERVIEW OF THE LAST YEARS

The expansion of global trade gained considerable force in the last decade, force that generated many transformations and changes. These transformations represent stronger improvements than expected, when compared with the preceding years, even if the trade growth remained below the average rate recorded in the ‘90s. Some of the improvements are supposed to be consequences of free trade areas expansion. In this sense the present paper aims to observe if the free trade agreements increased the members’ international trade and how much a stronger union perform comparing to a weaker one. It analyses the effects of total trade made by the members of the main five free trade agreements: EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, MERCOSUR, and ANDEAN PACT, between 2000 and 2010. In order to analyse the effects of the total trade made by the members of these unions, the authors used data collected from the WTO International Trade Statistics published in 2009 and 2011. For each one of the five unions was built a distinct chart which illustrates the variation of exports and imports during the analysed period of time, as well as the trends of these operations over these years. Comparing all these charts they concluded that EU trade significantly increased as more countries joined the group, in contrast to the other groups which maintained their level along the time. Moreover they have noted a gap between the exports and imports performed by EU and the ones performed by the other unions. EU commercial exchanges were by far superior to the ones of the other areas and, in the same time, the EU trade fluctuations are broader than the ones of the other areas. Perhaps in the next period of time the commercial exchanges of UE and NAFTA will enhance with these areas whose potential has not been fully harnessed. On the other hand, creating a large common market the EU - NAFTA will most certainly constitute a guarantee for global economic stability and sustained economic growth

POSSIBLE TRADE EFFECTS OF THE NEXT EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT

The European Union next enlargement will constitute a significant qualitative change in the structure of the current Union, as the accession of the Western Balkan countries and of Turkey in particular will bring a brand new set of economic problems. It is expected that this enlargement to have a considerable effect for the new entrants, as well as for the European Union as a whole.\r\nConsidering some of the aspects raised by a new extension, this article aims to observe the trade impact of a new enlargement with the membership of the Western Balkan countries and Turkey, as this new growth is expected to have a considerable effect for the new entrants and for the European Union as a whole.\r\nThis study is based on the compare of the potential trade creation effects with the trade diversion effects resulting from the removal of trade restrictions for Western Balkan countries and Turkey and the European Union, by using the revealed comparative advantage index.\r\nThe analyze objective was to estimate the degree of trade creation and trade diversion outcome on the EU countries when Western Balkan countries and Turkey are included into the Union market.\r\nThe obtained results suggest that the export structures differ significantly among Western Balkan countries and Turkey and the European Union. Based on the revealed comparative advantage indexes, the authors would expect an intra-regional trade creation effect, but also we expect a risk for the Eastern European countries trade with European Union, especially as a result of Turkey\\\'s accession into the European markets without any trade barriers.\r\nAs far as trade creation and trade diversion effects are concerned, they observed that Western Balkan countries and Turkey, probably, do not change the European Union position significantly because of their lower trade volume comparing with the one of the EU-27

ABOUT THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

The economic crisis that the global economy is facing nowadays has started with the financial crisis of the U.S financial system. We are talking about an unprecedented speculative boom at global level which has overcome the previous booms created by the