Building Capacity

正Chinese companies in Africa are improving infrastructure and benefiting local communities Rashidat Aweda finds there are a lot of positives to her working relationship with employer Huawei.From the spacious office environment and friendly colleagues,to the consideration,respect and training the Chinese information and communications technology(ICT)solutions provider gives every employee,Aweda appreciates the growth opportunities Huawei has provided her.     

俄东部交通基础设施大建设对黑龙江省与俄经贸合作的影响

俄罗斯70%的领土位于亚洲,亚太地区经济的快速发展对俄罗斯产生了重要影响,因此俄政府愈来愈重视与亚太毗邻的东部地区的经济发展。但长期以来,由于政策缺乏连续性、资金投入不足等原因,俄东部地区经济发展缓慢。而制约其经济发展的一个主要因素就是交通基础设施落后。目前,俄领导人已意识到要发展经济必先大力改善交通基础设施状况。黑龙江省积极参与俄东部地区交通基础设施大建设必然会提升对俄经贸合作水平。     

Policy Agendas for South Korea's Broadband Convergence Network Infrastructure Project

Broadband holds a critical position in the progress of economic and social indicators by connecting consumers, businesses, and governments. South Korea has consistently been the global leader in broadband deployment since 1999. In the last 10 years, the Korean government has pursued several strategies for its broadband policy. The purpose of this article was to explore South Korea's implementation of its Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) project with special emphasis on its objectives of achieving media convergence, ubiquitous connectivity, and coordination among network stakeholders. The study uses the theoretical framework of institutionalism to identify factors that help explain how the policy agenda for the BcN was implemented. The BcN is Korea's most recent high‐speed Internet infrastructure project and is envisioned as a conduit through which broadband services, applications, and content will flow to reflect a robust high‐speed Internet infrastructure. This broadband infrastructure project began in 2004 as a consortium that includes the government and private sector firms. This infrastructure was launched as a three‐phase project. The first phase of the BcN extended from 2004 through 2005, the second phase extended from 2006 through 2007, and the third phase extended from 2008 through 2010.     

论基础设施权

基础设施的目标在于实现普遍服务和增进公共利益,基础设施所有权的法律特质在于独立于基础设施物化载体和衡平利益相关方权益,并由此生成基础设施权的范畴。基础设施权是由国家保障公民享有的,以实现国家、社会和公民和谐发展为目标的,以基础设施公共产品供应和实现普遍服务为内容的权利体系。基础设施的公共政策和法律规制不仅需要服务于经济增长的目标,更应该以提高普遍服务和增进公共利益为核心价值。     

基础设施产业政府监管权的配置

本文探讨了中国基础设施产业政府监管权的配置问题 ,提出监管权的配置主要涉及到四个方面 :政策部门与监管机构之间的权力配置 ;监管机构之间的权力配置 ;监管机构与反垄断机构之间的权力配置 ;中央监管机构与地方监管机构之间的权力配置。文章集中对前三个方面的权力配置提出了一些具体的改革建议和设想     

Educational infrastructure created in conditions of social exclusion: ‘Kyrgyz clubs’ for migrant children in Moscow

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates how social exclusion affects the strategies that migrants and their children experience vis-à-vis the preschool education system of the host society. We use the example of two private institutions established in Moscow by Kyrgyz migrants to explore their role in helping integrate migrant children into the host society. I examine the role the Kyrgyz community plays in the life of labour migrants in Moscow, and why private migrant infrastructure is created today by people from this particular country, though eventually migrants from other countries use it as well. I find that in recent years migrants have been creating private infrastructure in Russia as an alternative to the public one. It replaces state institutions for migrants that are not accessible to them. Migrants also view it as one of the channels for entering the Russian society and state institutions. These centres do not so much help migrants’ children escape social isolation as compensate for the lack of adjustment programmes in Russian schools.     

Conflict resolution: benchmarking water utility performance

The water sector has economic and symbolic importance for citizens in developing countries. Water utility benchmarking is no panacea for improving water sector performance. Nevertheless, it can contribute to addressing four sources of conflict in the design and implementation of policies: cognitive conflicts (based on technical disagreements regarding how data might be analysed and interpreted), interest conflicts (where suppliers and demanders obtain different benefits and costs under alternative policies), values conflicts (involving ideology or personal preferences regarding water sector outcomes) and authority conflicts (stemming from jurisdictional disagreements over who has the last word). These potential sources of conflict characterise most politically‐charged situations, including water supply management. This article examines the extent to which water utility benchmarking facilitates conflict resolution. Without information on historical trends, current baselines and realistic targets, conflicts over reforms to improve sector performance can weaken systems that are already fragile, particularly those in developing countries. This article attempts to improve our understanding of the links between sources of conflict, government approaches for dealing with conflict and the role of water utility benchmarking as a complementary strategy for addressing policy issues. Benchmarking is one way regulators and managers can promote conflict resolution that allows participants to focus on performance. The principles apply to all sectors with significant state oversight. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capital Gains and Spatial Inequalities: Developing Fairer Suburbs

One of the longest‐running debates in urban development, enshrined within the evolution of the British planning system, is how best to capture the increased value of land arising from development. This article outlines the historic and contemporary context before proposing an approach towards ‘land value capture’, based on practice in continental Europe but adapted to Britain's specific circumstances. In doing so, it also sets out why new approaches are needed as part of the search for better ways of funding local infrastructure, developing mixed communities and improving Britain's suburbs for the benefit of all.     

Connecting to regional markets? Transport,logistics services and international transit challenges for Central Asian food-processing firms

Central Asian food processors face a number of constraints when they attempt to export to the region and beyond. The Central Asian economies in focus here are landlocked, and thus lack easy access to sea transport. In addition, the region's transport network was built to reinforce the interdependence of the then Soviet republics, while conflicting economic interests make cross-border cooperation difficult. Based on extensive fieldwork on infrastructure systems and firm export strategies, this paper identifies contemporary infrastructure and transportation issues within the Central Asian region, and makes a novel attempt to examine how these factors lead to challenges for local food processing producers trying to sell their products in the region and beyond.     

Contracting with Whom? The Differential Effects of Investment Treaties on FDI

Under what conditions can governments use international commitments such as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) to attract foreign direct investment (FDI)? Although numerous studies have attempted to answer this question, none considers how investment treaties may have heterogeneous affects across industry. I argue BIT effect is strongest when the obsolescing bargaining problem between firms and governments is most protracted, namely, when FDI relies on strong contracts between firms and states. Using a time series cross-sectional data set of 114 developing countries from 1985 to 2011, I find BITs are associated with increases in infrastructure investment, an industry particularly reliant on the sanctity of government contracts, but not with total FDI inflows. Moreover, BITs with strong arbitration provisions display the strongest statistical effect on infrastructure investment, while BITs that do not provide investors with such protections are not associated with increased investment. My results have implications for both scholarship on the relationship between governments and multinational firms as well as for the study of international institutions more broadly. To properly ascertain the effects of international treaties and institutions, scholars should consider not just whether institutions constrain or inform—or matter at all—but also the extent to which the targets of institutions have heterogeneous responses to them.