Production networks,economic integration and the services sector: Implications for regional trade agreements in southern Africa

Debate on an appropriate framework for economic integration in southern Africa has hitherto focused largely on matters relating to trade in final goods, with little analysis of the potential benefits of production sharing and fragmented trade, or of challenges related to the accompanying role of the services sector. The first goal of this article is thus to explore the possible benefits for the development of specialisation and trade expansion related to the international fragmentation of production, and whether such benefits may be better harnessed by southern African countries in a context of regional integration. Secondly, the critical role of the services sector in production-sharing arrangements leads to questions about developing country services sectors and regional versus multilateral services liberalisation. The article therefore considers the importance of the services sector in the fragmentation context, and the growing debates surrounding services aspects of developing country regional trade agreements. It is argued that while there may be a case for the promotion of production-sharing arrangements in regional trade agreements in southern Africa, key constraints that continue to hinder the region's trade and development agenda remain the conflicting rules of origin in economic arrangements with overlapping membership, and non-tariff barriers to trade, particularly intra-regional transport costs.     

Southern African governments,multilateral development banks,non-state actors,and sustainable infrastructure: Managing changing relationships

There is a need for the countries of Southern Africa to invest in building infrastructure, for which purpose they can be expected to utilise the services of multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDB-funded infrastructure projects often become arenas for debate over the roles and responsibilities of different actors in the development process. This article discusses the fact that there is no longer a clear consensus on the relative responsibilities of governments, MDBs and non-state actors in regard to infrastructure projects, and analyses how these new tensions in the relations between these three actors could complicate efforts to develop the infrastructure so urgently needed in Southern Africa.     

Yellow sea economic zone: Vision or reality?

This article provides a brief review of Sino-South Korean economic relations in the 1980s, and discusses domestic and international factors that are likely to influence economic relations between the two countries in the 1990s. Two possible scenarios are discussed for future Sino-South Korean economic relations: increasing trade and economic interaction within limited political relations; active economic cooperation across the Yellow Sea with normalized relations. Anticipating expanding economic ties between China and South Korea, the article discusses potential areas for cooperation such as trade and industrial relations, tourism and services, infrastructure development and transportation linkages, and institutional support.     

日本、印度金融支持农村基础设施建设的经验及启示

日本、印度两国在农村基础设施建设过程中,有多种金融机构提供多样化的金融服务,如日本的农协、农林渔业金融公库,印度的国家农业和农村开发银行等,为农村基础设施建设提供了贷款、担保等服务,确保了农村基础设施建设的金融需求。日本、印度的金融支持农村基础设施建设的实践给我国提供了有益的启示。     

Equality and Regional Finance in the Americas

This article explores competing definitions of equality embedded in contending visions for regional finance in the Americas. The U.S. free market–oriented project envisions extension of a NAFTA‐like regulatory framework hemispherewide, promising Latin Americans better financial services, credit, and investment in exchange for strong financial property protections and (implicitly) dramatically reduced financial policy autonomy for their governments. Venezuela's vision of “Bolivarian” finance, exported to the Caribbean and the upper Andes, promotes assertive state management of both foreign and domestic investors, populist redistribution, and increasing reliance on nonmarket financial transactions. Brazil's regional financial project would unite South America through continentwide physical infrastructure and capitalist financial markets while retaining a role for public sector banks responsive to central government priorities. Brazil's approach shares with Venezuela's an emphasis on governments' need for financial policy authority and with the U.S. approach a concern for regulatory predictability and financial deepening.     

Regulation of Liberalised Network Industries: Infostructure as a Missing Link

The aim of this paper is to evaluate how infostructure has been reformed in the liberalisation process of network industries, which has involved third party access to the network through a comparison of the electricity, railway, and civil aviation sectors in Switzerland. Our theoretical argument posits that infostructure is a missing link in the study of the regulation of liberalised network industries. Infostructure is defined as the control and command services that are necessary for monitoring the access to and optimising the uses of infrastructure. Our empirical comparison of the sectors aims at answering the principle question: What is the impact of the management of infostructure on the liberalisation process and the structure of liberalising markets? This study of the liberalisation of network industries in Switzerland highlights the potential strategic function of infostructure in the context of opening to competition and internationalising markets. Infostructure management can impact infrastructure ownership and service operation in terms of market structure and constrain access to the infrastructure and the market. Infostructure could also weaken the capacity to regulate the entire sector from regulatory agencies, particularly when self‐regulatory arrangements control third party access to the network.     

Many Voices,One Ambition: Local Government,Post-War Reconstruction and Northern Development in Australia

Established in 1944, the North Queensland Local Government Association made an impact on post-war reconstruction and northern development in Australia. The association modernised infrastructure and improved social conditions in Queensland's north, as well as launching an influential publicity campaign to promote a massive northern development scheme. In an era when federal proposals for developing Australia's northern regions often struggled to make a convincing case for Commonwealth investment, these were significant contributions to nation-building. Putting substance before parochialism, the association fostered cooperation among municipal authorities and patiently lobbied the Queensland government. But some members complained that their region was part of a “neglected north” and called for a more assertive campaign. By the late 1950s, having developed regional infrastructure, grown in confidence, and looking for new challenges, the association shifted its lobbying to target the Commonwealth government. The change led to the “People the North” publicity campaign, which influenced federal northern development policy. This article analyses the campaigns led by the North Queensland Local Government Association in the twenty years after 1944. It illuminates a neglected part of Australia's political history: the contribution of regional political voices from Australia's north to nation-building projects such as post-war reconstruction and northern development.     

From scarcity to security: Water as a potential factor for conflict and cooperation in Southern Africa

The authors argue that South Africa's role as an economic gateway for various African countries primarily depends on geography, that is, on naturally given and man-made structures in geographical space. Hence, they first examine South Africa's location and physio-geographical conditions in Southern Africa in order to show important factors that affect the scope of the South African gateway. Second, they shed light on regional transport infrastructure, revealing how South Africa interlinks its neighbouring countries globally. Thirdly, regional economic interaction is analysed with regard to structural features of South Africa's economy that make it prone to being a gateway. The authors recognise that the impact of all these factors is influenced by strategic decisions taken by politicians and businesspeople. The outlook of the paper therefore addresses policies of the South African government that are often problematic for the country's gateway role. Potential challengers and their competitive advantages are presented, too.     

Traditional Excluding Forces: A Review of the Quantitative Literature on the Economic Situation of Indigenous Peoples,Afro‐descendants,and People Living with Disability

Unequal income distribution in Latin America and the Caribbean is linked to unequal distributions of human and physical assets and differential access to markets and services. These circumstances, and the accompanying social tensions, need to be understood in terms of traditional fragmenting forces; the sectors of the population that experience unfavorable outcomes are also recognized by characteristics such as ethnicity, race, gender, and physical disability. In addition to reviewing the general literature on social exclusion, this article surveys several more specific topics: relative deprivation (in land and housing, physical infrastructure, health and income); labor market issues, including access to labor markets in general, as well as informality, segregation, and discrimination; the transaction points of political representation, social protection, and violence; and areas in which analysis remains weak and avenues for further research in the region.     

Islamic faith-based development organizations in former Soviet Muslim environments: the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme in the Rasht valley,Tajikistan

This article aims to examine the modus operandi of the Aga Khan Foundation and its Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP) in Tajikistan's Rasht valley. As one of the few non-governmental development programmes from the wider Islamic world in an area where the Sunni beneficiary base is of a different Islamic tradition than the Ismaili Shi'ite community the Foundation is connected with, the MSDSP gained importance and legitimacy as a rehabilitator and provider of public services and social infrastructure that were once provided by the state. The article pays particular attention to the ways of transcending the Sunni–Ismaili divide between aid providers and beneficiaries, as well as to more recent social changes which increasingly challenge the MSDSP's use of traditional local institutions for programme implementation.     

Online Campaigning in Germany: The CDU Online Campaign for the General Election 2009 in Germany

The German election year 2009 saw the first attempts by political parties to include Web 2.0 services in their online campaigns. The 2009 election therefore offers the opportunity to examine how political parties outside the USA – where online campaigning has become commonplace – choose to use online tools in their campaigns. This paper examines the online campaign of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with a special focus on the campaign's use of Web 2.0 services. The different elements of the campaign will be discussed with regard to three basic functions of online campaigning provided by the relevant literature: 1) presence in the online information space; 2) support of the infrastructure of politics; 3) creation of symbols for political support and participation. This paper shows that these functions were all present in the CDU's use of online tools in the campaign of 2009.     

Afghanistan reconstruction in regional perspective

The reconstruction of Afghanistan is in part dependent upon the reintegration of Afghanistan into the international community. Reintegration, in turn, is dependent upon Afghanistan's trans-border infrastructure of communication, trade, transport, water, power and investment. Accordingly, increased regional economic cooperation is a key element of Afghanistan's reconstruction. This article analyses regional economic cooperation in the South and Central Asian region in terms of logic, institutions, actors, and expectations. The article argues in favour of inclusiveness to enlarge the number of beneficiaries of economic benefits of regional economic cooperation while avoiding the pitfalls of risky strategies of faulty collective action.     

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.     

白俄罗斯旅游业发展现状与中白旅游合作前景

在当今世界经济中,旅游业是发展最快、对全球国内生产总值贡献较大的产业之一,已成为世界经济增长的重要动力。而旅游合作正在成为国家间双边及地区多边合作的重要方向。在最新的《2030年前白俄罗斯可持续社会经济发展战略》中,旅游业已被白俄罗斯确定作为国家经济发展的主要动力之一。尽管在基础设施、发展资金等方面还存在诸多困难,在国民经济贡献度、市场受欢迎程度、服务形式与水平等方面还存在诸多不足,但是其在资源、相关基础设施建设、政策支持等方面已具备较好的基础,发展前景广阔。中白旅游合作,在资源、政策、市场等方面已经具备了较好的合作条件。通过实施第三方市场联合开发、区域旅游集群建设、消费支付手段便利化以及创新产品宣传手段等措施,未来中白旅游合作有潜力成为继中白工业园之后中白间务实合作的又一亮点,进而成为“一带一路”合作框架下的新典范。     

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization,trade, and the roles of Iran,India and Pakistan

This article seeks to explore the implications of Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) engagement with India, Pakistan and Iran. Not in terms of power-politics or as a counterbalance to the USA as this has been explored elsewhere, but what practical problems such an expanded organization could help solve, what opportunities it could realize, and how SCO's engagement in trade is a function of favourable political and bilateral developments in the region. It is argued here that the trade, infrastructure and energy sectors are of particular importance and that substantial potential gains could be realized if coordination is improved. Nevertheless, it is also recognized that China, Russia, Pakistan, India and Iran may have lower standards of democratic development and economic transparency than the West. What is the motivation behind the SCO's engagement with India, Pakistan and Iran? Should this engagement be conceived only in terms of balancing US unipolarity or are there legitimate concerns of increasing regional cooperation in Eurasia?     

Private sector participation in infrastructure for development

This article reflects on the variety of finance sources to African countries, including aid flows, remittances, development finance, private equity and bonds and foreign direct investment. In order to address the poverty challenge, estimated at about $66 billion annually, these finances must be applied appropriately in various economic sectors, in particular the infrastructure sectors. These include both physical assets (transport, energy, water and sanitation and information and communications) and social services (hospitals and clinics, education and low-income housing). Governments are ultimately responsible for ensuring access to infrastructure for their citizens. However, developing-country governments are unable to address the infrastructure backlogs, let alone develop new assets, especially in the least developed countries in Africa. Governments rely on alliances with international partners, development finance institutions and, importantly, the private sector. However, the rules of engagement with the private sector need to be redefined, with proper emphasis on bringing affordable yet quality access to poorer communities.     

Environmental migrations in Central Asia: a multifaceted approach to the issue

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, studies are considering Central Asia a ‘hot spot’ of climate change and a region prone to environmental migrations. Growing aridity and the shrinking of glaciers may have important impacts on food security, health, human security and infrastructure in the region and compel people to move. Drawing on the literature on environmental issues in Central Asia and on interviews conducted in the Kuhistoni-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan, this article provides a literature survey on environmental migrations in the region and positions Central Asia in the current debates within the broad environmental migrations literature. The article shows that environmental issues can stand out as an important push factor for out-migration in Central Asia, highlights the important role of the Soviet heritage of environmental management as well as of post-Soviet socio-economic transformations in understanding these issues, and discusses possible adaptation strategies.     

South Africa's financial and economic prospects for the next five years

South African dominance of trade in Africa as well as its position as a regional hegemon was entrenched by the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with the European Union in 1999. South Africa's full-blown integration into the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) formation since 2011 has brought new dynamics, however, as South Africa now has a marked BRICS orientation. Although the European Union (EU) as a bloc is still South Africa's largest trading partner, China has become South Africa's largest single-country trading partner. The question arises as to whether this new found loyalty makes sense in terms of South Africa's regional position and its trade prospects. Against the background of more intra-industry trade with the EU and the new and growing inter-industry trade with the other BRICS economies, South Africa's trade share of African trade has been in relative decline. This study uses an international political economy framework to analyse South African trade hegemony based on the TDCA and the possible effects of a shift towards BRICS. The conclusion is that, although the shift towards BRICS can politically be justified, economically it should not be at the expense of the benefits of the more advantageous relationship with the EU.     

The US–China Relationship and Asia-Pacific Security: Negotiating Change

Abstract

The crucial determinant of Asia-Pacific security is whether the U.S. and China can negotiate their relationship and their relative positions and roles in such a way as to produce sustainable regional stability. This paper examines three alternative scenarios of negotiating Sino-American coexistence: (I) The maintenance of the status quo of U.S. strategic dominance over the region, which China does not challenge; (II) negotiated change, by which the two powers coordinate to manage a more fundamental structural transformation; and (III) power transition, in which there is a significant structural shift in the regional system as a rising China challenges U.S. dominance, with a range of possible outcomes.     

African Postmodernism: Its Moment,Nature and Content

The fulcrum of this article is its exposure of postcolonial African modernity as being both historically and philosophically, an anachronistic colonial modernity, or simply Afrocoloniality. I explicate this anachronism by pointing out that while the cultural and intellectual edifice of Afrocoloniality was built on a colonial European Modernism, whose epistemic infrastructure continues to be reconstructed by the Western postmodernist movement, the structure of this Afrocoloniality remains impervious to this reconstruction. A Status quaestionis arises from the fact that, historically, in its nascent form, this African modernity that we claim is an Afrocoloniality was facilitated by an anticolonial consciousness that embraced and generated a series of political categories and a political praxis, which, in turn, had to be trapped in the paradigms of European modernism, while this very European modernism was in a state of philosophic crisis. A recognition of this incongruity, I argue, constitutes a uniquely African postmodernist conceptual prism that can serve to appraise these politico-philosophical categories that have informed the conduct of the anti-colonial struggle and the resultant postcolonial milieu. This article therefore, makes a case for this Afro-postmodernism.