美国专利交易趋向展望——从专利投机到专利投资信托

专利投机行为在美国专利交易中扮演着一个重要的角色,利弊各现,既有制度原因,也有经济原因。要建立高效的专利交易市场,专利投资信托不可或缺,其有引人的税金节约额、灵活的法人结构等优势,代表着未来美国专利交易的新趋向。     

中国投资协议实体保护标准的自由化和多边化演进

与双边投资协议在全球范围内的爆炸式增长形成鲜明对比,国际投资保护领域的多边协定相对而言谈判进展缓慢并且较少受到关注.亚洲地区最近的多边投资协定,当属《东盟—中国投资协议》及《中日韩三方协定》.本文以中国签订的双边和多边投资协议为研究对象,考察国民待遇、最惠国待遇、公平和公正待遇、全面保护与安全、征收以及资本转移等主要实体保护标准的演进.《东盟—中国投资协议》与《中日韩三方协定》为外国投资者提供的实体保护标准,越发显示出更为自由的保护投资者的立场,这将有利于促进投资、改善投资相关规章制度的透明度、加强投资领域的多边合作,最终推动整个亚太地区的区域投资协定的签署以及投资法律体系的自由化和多边化发展.     

Squaring the Virtuous Circle: Exploring the Potential of the ‘Five Cs’

During his May 2014 visit to Australia Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the World Trade Organization, urged ‘public institutions, civil society, and global businesses’ to forge ‘creative coalitions’ for the purpose of engaging constructively and positively with the complex problems standing in the way of achieving social and economic sustainability. Lamy's visit was but the first of several occasions during 2014 in which intense public discussion erupted about the need for government, business, and civil society to pool their capacities in boundary‐spanning efforts to address complex policy problems. This article investigates whether the public discussion portends a heightened policy focus on the ‘five Cs’: co‐production, co‐design, corporate social responsibility, collective impact, and Lamy's creative coalitions.     

Analysis of Policy of Investment in Science and Technology Based on CGE Model

Investment in science and technology is not only a significant indicator to reflect a regional scientific and technological strength and core competitiveness, but also important to technical progress and technology innovation. Investment in science and technology will affect the entire economy through technology innovation. In this paper, it analyzes the impact of Beijing investment in science and technology on regional economic development and builds a Beijing regional CGE （Computable General Equilibrium） model with an econometric module that links the investment in science and technology with technological progress. It finds that investment in science and technology will increase the Beijing GDP （Gross Domestic Product）, and promote economic structural adjustment. When the real investment in science and technology increases 1%, 2%, or 3%, Beijing GDP will respectively increase 0.93%, 1.22%, or 1.51%. From the perspective of resident＇s income, when investment in science and technology increase by 3%, the level of resident＇s income will increase by 3.24%. In view of the structure perspective of different sector＇s investment in science and technology, different investment in sectors will lead to different impact of economic growth and structure; results show that： when the priority of Beijing investment of different sector in science and technology is tertiary sectors, agricultural sector, and industry sectors, it is conducive to economic growth and industry structure adjustment.     

Rebuilding the DRC

The DRC's transitional parliamentary system, run by appointed officials, is still in place pending the country's first elections. The system is characterised by personal considerations overriding those of the electorate and a disregard for the strengthening of democracy.     

Land Acquisition,Investment, and Development in the Lao Coffee Sector: Successes and Failures

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasing acknowledgment of scholars and practitioners that many large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in developing countries fail or never materialize, empirical evidence about how and why they fail to date is still scarce. Too often, land deals are portrayed as straightforward investments and their success is taken for granted. Looking at the coffee sector in Laos, the authors of this article explore dimensions of the land grab debate that have not yet been sufficiently examined. Coffee concessionaires in southern Laos often fail to use all of the land granted them and fail to produce high yields on the land they do use. Thus, the authors challenge the often-assumed superiority and effectiveness of large-scale versus small-scale production, specifically the argument that they modernize agricultural production and optimize land use. They argue that examining failed investments is as important as studying successful ones for understanding the implications of the land grabbing phenomenon for social, economic, and environmental outcomes. Knowledge about the scale of “failed land deals” provides important motivation for national governments to close the gap between intentions and actual outcomes. This article engages with the current debate on quality of investment and challenges the approach of employing land concessions as a vehicle for economic development in the Lao coffee sector and in other sectors and countries.     

Should the African lion learn from the Asian tigers? A comparative-historical study of FDI-oriented industrial policy in Ethiopia,South Korea and Taiwan

Ethiopia’s economy has been growing at breakneck speed for well over a decade now, earning the nickname as Africa’s lion. In recent years, the development literature on Ethiopia has paid particular attention to the role of industrial policy, especially the ways in which the Ethiopian experience compares to that of the Asian tigers. But through this comparative-historical perspective, little attention has been devoted to an important aspect of industrial policy in Ethiopia – foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing sector. This paper compares FDI-oriented industrial policy in Ethiopia in the current era (particularly focusing on light manufacturing) to that of South Korea and Taiwan between 1960 and 1990, arguably the two most generalisable cases among the Asian tigers. The paper argues that FDI-oriented industrial policy in Ethiopia seems to be bringing about short-term economic benefits, and is showing promise for further industrialisation. At the same time, it could benefit from taking more lessons from the long-term economic development perspective that characterised South Korea’s and Taiwan’s approach to FDI. Such a long-term perspective most importantly includes pro-active strategies to transfer technology from foreign firms to the domestic economy and the creation of backward linkages from foreign to domestic firms.     

Neo‐nationalism and Neo‐Atlanticism in Italian foreign policy

The European Union has low expectations for the international climate regime after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol effectively expires. The United States is not thought likely to sign up to new binding international commitments, whereas EU countries have experienced unexpected difficulties in implementing existing commitments. As a consequence, the European Union may be prepared to settle for a surprisingly weak follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, the European Union will pursue bilateral and regional climate agreements with like-minded countries, parallel to the UN framework and possibly independently of it. Collectively, such agreements could produce an international climate regime that is more robust than what could be agreed at the consensus-based UN level. Nevertheless, the European Union will continue to support the UN process as the only legitimate forum for international negotiations on climate change.     

Governance Barriers to Renewable Energy in North Africa

Solar power in the North African region has the potential to provide electricity for local energy needs and export to Europe. Nevertheless, despite the technical feasibility of solar energy projects, stakeholders still perceive projects in the region as risky because of existing governance issues. Certain areas of solar projects, such as construction, operation and management, are the most prone to governance risks, including lack of transparency and accountability, perceived as barriers for deployment of the projects. It is likely that large-scale foreign direct investment into solar energy will not eliminate existing risks, but might even increase them. Furthermore, the recent political changes in the region have addressed some governance risks but not all of them, especially bureaucratic corruption. Stakeholders recommend a broad set of measures to facilitate development of solar projects in the region, ranging from auditing of individual projects to simplification and unification of bureaucratic procedures.     

China in the dynamic Asia‐Pacific region

The Chinese economy has experienced spectacular growth in recent years. Despite its huge trade and investment potential, China today remains an insignificant player in the world economy. But the emerging Chinese economy has already profoundly changed the pattern of trade and investment flows in the Asia‐Pacific region. Over the years, the Chinese economy has been steadily integrated with its neighbouring economies of Japan, the NIEs and ASEAN, which are all well known for their dynamic growth. The growing integration of the Chinese economy, with its huge economic potential, into the Asia‐Pacific region will enhance the region's prospects for further growth. Most Asia‐Pacific economies take a positive view of China's increasing economic involvement in the region as a new source of economic opportunity. It is in such a regional rather than the global context that the immediate effects of China's recent economic upsurge should be gauged.