Harmonizing investment incentives in the APEC process

Security of access to markets is critically important in international trade in goods and services. Security is also critically important to foreign direct investment. With the “globalization” of production, international attention has been turning to improving the institutional environment for FDI, especially in developing economies. In APEC, the focus has been on principles and a non-binding code, but in due course the focus will have to shift to a binding agreement with rules that instill the confidence needed for providers of capital to invest in the major infrastructure projects that will make a difference in East Asia’s development. The focus here is on limits on the level of investment incentives that governments can use to attract foreign investors.     

Changing patterns of social network structure in composer-singer relationships: A case study of the Korean popular music industry, 1927–1997

This study focuses on relationships between two different sets of actors in the Korean popular music industry—songwriters and singers—who were mutually connected in the production of hit songs during the period of 1927–1997. Data for the present study were obtained from a set of publications providing the following information about hit songs in Korea since 1925: title, musical style, year of recording and release, lyricist(s), composer(s), singer(s), and the label company producing the record or album. Data are used to test a series of hypotheses on the nature of relationships between songwriters and singers. Results of the present analysis show that composer-singer pairs are likely to have produced only one hit song together, due to a high degree of market competition in the popular music industry. Because composers tend to have more control over their relationships with singers than singers have in their relationships with composers, composers are more likely to have multiple hit songs with more than one singer than are singers to have multiple hit songs with more than one composer. Genres of popular music in Korea have changed significantly since 1950, and these changes have also affected composer-singer relations. The diversification of genres has reduced the concentration of hit songs by selected elite composer-singer pairs over time. Another important consequence of the changes in genres is that the proportion of hit songs by artists playing dual roles as composer and singer has dramatically increased in recent years.     

Trade and investment in Southeast Asian development

Expansion of foreign trade and investment has been a vital factor underlaying the high economic growth of the Southeast Asian economies over the last ten years. As East and Southeast Asian economies continue to deregulate and prosper, trade and investment flows are becoming increasingly interconnected within the region. The character of this regional economic integration, however, has shifted recently. The role of the Japanese has declined while that of China and the overseas Chinese has boomed. Whereas China has absorbed huge amounts of foreign investment, investment to the Southeast Asian economies appears to be weakening significantly. This weakening of investment is occurring just as many Southeast Asian countries struggle to uppgrade the technical levels of their production of goods and services to accommodate the rising wages and income levels that are fundamental to sustained and broad-based increases in standards of living throughout the region.     

Direct foreign investment and the Yellow Sea Rim

The article investigates the possibility and problems of direct foreign investment (DFI) in the Yellow Sea Rim. After reviewing the global trends in DFI and major policy issues, the article discusses the perspectives of DFI in the region. It examines the markets for the products made by foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures as well as relocation of industries from South Korea and Japan. By reviewing Japanese experience in operating joint ventures and subsidiaries in China, the article discusses difficulty in managing subsidiaries in the centrally planned economy. A probable consequence of increased DFI will be an expansion of emigration of Chinese citizens to Korea and Japan.     

The views of the Chinese statesman on the par Eastern problem (1921)

The phrase “The Great Game” was first used in the context of Russia and Central Asia by the ill-fated Captain Conolly in 1840. For Conolly, the game metaphor signified a contest in which the Russians were Britain's potential opponents, while the Central Asians were her immediate ones. Indeed Conolly, like Thorburn, a later writer, seems even to have envisaged Russia as Britain's partner in the work of civilizing Asia. Boulger, tried to use the phrase to signify Anglo-Russian confrontation but interestingly the phrase was little used in the literature on Central Asia until Kipling's “Kim” endowed it with a popularity and the implication of great power rivalry which it had not previously enjoyed. In fact widespread use only came after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, though “The Great Game” is now in ever more frequent use to signify American/Russian rivalry. Kipling's use has triumphed over Conolly's.     

Foreign investment in Africa: Challenges and benefits

Foreign direct investment in Africa has not sparked the benefits that policy makers had hoped for. This article looks at some of the problems that are preventing this growth and highlights the positive developments in parts of the continent.     

Foreign investment,industrial restructuring and dependent development in Singapore

Singapore's industrial development and restructuring are very much dependent on foreign investment. Despite the apparent benefits of foreign investment and Singapore's success in export-oriented manufacturing, there are worrisome aspects arising from the large and growing dependency on such investment in the manufacturing sector as Singapore moves toward a developed country status. This article explores some of the consequences of such dependency. In terms of industrial pattern, foreign investment has created and maintained a dualistic industrial structure in manufacturing. Foreign firms and government industrial policies have suppressed and marginalized local entrepreneurship. Export-oriented industrialization has opened the employment doors for women in manufacturing. However, women are predominantly found in low pay, dead end jobs in the assembly line of Singapore's new industrial order. With the implementation of a new wave of industrial restructuring strategies, new capital and technological intensive foreign investments are welcomed and solicited. However, the local labour supply is unable to meet the increased demands. Foreign labour has been called in to fill the gaps. This inevitably distorts labour market outcomes and heightens the income inequality index.     

Okinawa and the Nago heliport problem in the US-Japan relationship

The impact of the decision about when and if the United States Marine Corp Air Station will be relocated in Okinawa reverberates beyond the prefectural shores. It has the potential to upset the G-8 Summit, scheduled to be held in Nago City in July 2000, as well as to affect the strategic relationship between the US and Japan. In this article, Robert Eldridge, Post-doctoral Fellow at the Suntory Foundation, Osaka, reviews the history of this complicated problem. He argues that the US and Japan must continue to make progress addressing Okinawan requests and concerns. Ameliorating Okinawa” s burden, while at the same time more actively seeking public understanding and suppor t of the US-Japan security relationship and Japan's role in that relationship, as well as increasing Japan's ability to cooperate in times of emergency, is in the interest of both countries.     

Improving soft skills and communication in response to youth unemployment

Several studies have been conducted into the high rates of graduate youth unemployment in South Africa. Results from these investigations have isolated some determinants which can be categorised under three broad headings – government, business practices and graduate attributes. the article focuses on graduates’ attributes that negatively impact on their employability. One attribute that was identified was their soft skills, particularly, their communication ability or their levels of pragmatic language usage. Pragmatic competence is an ability which is not always consequential to ordinary language development; there needs to be explicit instruction for such development. This is a reflective article with the objective of examining the nature of communication in the workplace and what strategies can enhance graduates’ communication ability, and in turn improve their employability. this article concludes that enhancing graduates’ communication skills should be a cooperative venture involving all the stakeholders in education – students, parents, higher education institutions, business and government.