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This report examines what countries have achieved in terms of strengthening resilience through better risk management and identifies persisting challenges. It focuses on the importance of creating an institutional environment that engages all stakeholders and allows them to build resilience against future shocks. This report has contributed to the development of the OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Critical Risks.
Over the past two decades, most Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have experienced robust economic growth and been able to make significant reductions in poverty and income inequality. However, growth in the region was not strong enough to ensure convergence towards levels of per capita income observed in advanced OECD economies. An important part of this underperformance can be explained by weak productivity growth. Should this weakness persist, it will be very difficult for LAC countries to achieve better lives for the majority of families. The present publication portrays the situation of LAC countries and discusses best-practice policies. Participation in global value chains is encouraged to enable knowledge spillovers and a process of learning by doing. More regional trade integration would help this process, as Latin America ranks very low and remains a sizeable outlier. The diffusion of knowledge and technology would be facilitated by making it easier to do business, notably allowing new entrants that are facing high barriers to operate and grow. Improved access to education is important to meet the demand for skills, and to boost innovation and research and development, which is particularly true in a context of fast technological change.
In order to attain its objective of becoming a high-income economy by 2020, Malaysia is engaged in efforts to enhance the performance of its innovation system. A range of challenges need to be addressed and different policy tools can help in this respect. For this purpose the national intellectual property (IP) system can play a pivotal role. This review assesses how Malaysian's national IP system promotes innovation and offers recommendations to improve the design of the system. It does so by analysing the organisation and governance of Malaysia's IP system as well as opportunities and challenges for different local users - ranging from small businesses to frontier companies and public research institutions. Moreover, the review discusses the state of IP markets in Malaysia and related policies and provides a comprehensive set of statistics describing the use of IP in Malaysia in recent years.
National intellectual property (IP) systems can play a pivotal role in fostering innovation and knowledge diffusion. This report analyses Kazakhstan’s IP system with regards to its support of the country’s innovation performance. In particular, it assesses the organisation and governance of Kazakhstan's IP system as well as the needs and challenges faced by different groups of actual and potential IP users – ranging from universities and public research institutions to state-owned enterprises and small businesses. The review provides a comprehensive set of statistics describing the use of IP in Kazakhstan in recent years, identifies the system’s strengths and weaknesses, and presents a range of specific policy recommendations to address existing challenges.
Both firms, keen to improve their competitiveness, and governments, keen to exploit new sources of economic and social progress, need to understand how innovation works in order to better stimulate it. The paradox of innovation is that it uses co-operation to enhance competition and to link many different actors in innovative clusters. In a knowledge-based economy, these clusters of innovative firms form around sources of knowledge. They are based on a sophisticated infrastructure in which knowledge is developed, shared and exchanged, and are characterised by highly concentrated and effective links between entrepreneurs, investors and researchers. Clusters can take a variety of forms, depending on their main technological and commercial areas of specialisation. In most cases they operate within localised geographical areas and interact within larger innovation systems at the regional, national and international level. With globalisation, dynamic clusters are becoming key factors in a country’s capacity to attract the international investment that generates new technological expertise, to interest investors in innovation (venture capital, etc.) and to benefit from the international mobility of skilled personnel. This book reviews the latest economic research on these issues, shows how technology policy makers in OECD countries are making practical use of the concept of clusters and suggests how government policies to foster innovation might best be refocused.
Countries around the world are facing an energy security and affordability crisis affecting households, businesses and public budgets. In Latin America, household expenditure on energy services is second only to food. On average, the share of household budget for energy ranges between 7% and 9% of income – and up to more than 24% for the poorest households. As governments urgently implement measures to protect citizens and secure their economies, it is important to consider short- and long- term solutions to ease existing pain and reduce risks over time. While much attention focuses on securing energy supplies, it is equally important to take a hard look at the role of more efficient and flexible demand in securing affordable, reliable energy.Decades of policies and programmes have delivered energy savings around the world. As a result, energy systems are more resilient, bills are lower, and public budgets feel less pressure than they would have without these efforts.
This report looks at energy efficiency and demand management policies and programmes across Latin America. It presents evidence of the results of these efforts on improving living standards, public budgets, energy security and employment, and provides a view on the opportunities to expand these benefits and support just energy transitions.
In 2014 the OECD carried out work to take stock of OECD countries' achievements in building resilience to major natural and man-made disasters. The report suggested that albeit significant achievements were made through effective risk prevention and mitigation management, past disasters have revealed persistent vulnerabilities and gaps in risk prevention management across OECD. Based on the findings of this OECD-wide report a cross-country comparative study was undertaken in Austria, France and Switzerland to test the recommendations put forward in specific country contexts. This report summarises the individual and comparative country case study findings. It highlights that the risk prevention policy mix has shifted in favor of organisational measures such as hazard informed land use planning or strengthening the enforcement of risk sensitive regulations. In the meantime, the great need for maintaining the large stock of structural protection measures has been overlooked and vulnerability might increase because of that. The report highlights the need for better policy evaluation to increase the effectiveness of risk prevention measures in the future. The report highlights practices where countries succeeded to make risk prevention a responsibility of the whole of government and the whole of society, by analysing supporting governance and financing arrangements.
The development of liquid, sound and deep bond markets has become one of the most important policy issues in the financial sector in Asian countries. In fact, though this issue has been discussed for a while now, the Asian financial crisis re-emphasised its importance, and it is worth discussing this issue in the framework of the post-crisis landscape.
The second "Round Table on Capital Market Reforms in Asia" held in Tokyo in April 2000, which was organised by the OECD and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), focused on bond market development in Asia. Bond market development involves a number of inter-related issues and it is not an easy task, especially for emerging economies. Though there have been a number of positive developments in Asia in this field, it is also true that it takes time for a bond market to become well-developed in Asia. This publication is based on a summary of the proceedings of the second Round Table, together with papers on the experience of both Asian and OECD countries presented at the meeting and on the discussions by the participants. This volume will surely serve as an indispensable source of information on capital market reform, and in particular on bond market development in Asia; it will constitute a reference book on those topics for policy-makers and experts in both the public and private sectors.
Boards of directors of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a fundamental role in corporate stewardship and performance. Over the last decade, OECD governments have sought to professionalise SOE boards, ensure their independence and shield them from ad hoc political intervention. In general these approaches have worked; yet, more remains to be done to meet the aspirational standards of established by the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. This report seeks to shed slight on good practices drawing on national practices from over 30 economies.
The reader will learn about the effectiveness of boards in fulfilling their obligation to align executive and board remuneration with the longer term interests of their companies.
This report addresses the corporate governance framework and company practices that determine the nomination and election of board members. It covers some 26 jurisdictions including in-depth reviews of four jurisdictions: Indonesia, Korea, the Netherlands and the United States.
The scope of this Emissions Scenario Document includes the blending of fine and functional fragrance oils into consumer and commercial products. The manufacture of aroma chemicals and the formulation of fragrance oil are outside the scope of this scenario. However, these industrial operations are discussed in this section as an introduction to the fragrance industry as a whole. The following life-cycle diagram demonstrates the applicability of this scenario.
The least developed countries (LDCs) are the furthest from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are also likely to be hit the hardest by the COVID-19 crisis and badly need the additional private finance that blended finance can unlock. Yet evidence shows that too little private finance is mobilised for investment in LDCs. How can this be fixed?
The Blended Finance in the Least Developed Countries 2020 report is the third edition and second joint UNCDF-OECD report. It builds on UNCDF research and transactional experience, OECD data and analysis on private finance mobilized by official development finance, and a series consultations with and contributions by blended finance experts, LDC governments, UN missions, donors, civil society and research institutions. The report provides an update on the deployment of blended finance in LDCs. It also analyses its potential role in helping those countries recover from the COVID-19 crisis, and provides an Action Agenda for unlocking capital for the achievement of the SDGs in LDCs, as called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
The world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs) are among those most at risk of being left behind. While official development assistance and domestic public resources remain essential for their development prospects, they alone will not be sufficient to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. With the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the international community acknowledged the need for significant additional public and private finance, and development partners are increasingly focusing on blended approaches.
What are the trends in blended finance for LDCs? What can it achieve and how? The OECD and UNCDF are working together to shed new light on these issues. Building on a 2018 publication, this edition presents the latest data available on private finance mobilised in developing countries by official development finance, extending the previous analysis to cover 2016 and 2017 as well as longer-term trends from 2012 to 2017. It discusses the most recent international policy trends shaping the blended finance market, and what these might mean for LDCs. Stakeholders and practitioners also share their views on the challenges and opportunities in designing and implementing blended finance operations in LDCs.
This book analyses the opportunities and conditions of employment throughout the Black Sea region and Central Asia. It examines how different countries deal with social issues affecting well-being. It presents, thus, both a country-based view and a whole-region analysis that will be useful for policy makers and civil society in responding to the challenges ahead. Countries covered include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The Black Sea region lies at the crossroads of major oil and gas export streams to the Mediterranean and Western Europe. Energy projects in the Caspian states depend vitally on the possibility of moving oil and gas out of the region. The Black Sea and its riparian states form a vital transit route. This is the first study of the Black Sea region as a whole, its energy needs and how future oil and gas transport in the region could develop. The Black Sea Energy Survey complements the previous IEA study on Caspian Oil and Gas. It reviews the energy policies and sectors of seven countries with diverse energy situations. Azerbaijan is a major oil producer and exporter, Armenia and Georgia are energy-poor, Bulgaria and Romania are EU accession candidates which must restructure their domestic oil and coal industries, while Greece and Turkey are IEA Member states. This study covers energy strategies, institutions and restructuring, as well as recent and projected energy trends in these countries. The book analyses the reforms that are still needed to attract significant investment, both into domestic energy projects and regional energy trade.
Industrial biotechnology has come of age: after decades spent in the shadow of two better-known fields, health and agro-food biotechnology, it has emerged into a world where environmental sustainability has become a global concern. However, sustainability and "clean" industrial processes will not be achieved without a stream of innovations based on science and technology, among which biotechnology will play an important role.
This report illustrates how modern process biotechnology is penetrating industrial operations, and highlights its environmental and economic advantages over other technologies. It identifies technical and other bottlenecks, but also emphasizes that industry and governments must act together to address the challenges of industrial sustainability.
If present trends in fertility and life expectancy continue, between one quarter and one third of the population in OECD countries will be over 65 years by 2025. The ageing population will have profound social and economic implications. Not surprisingly, countries are searching for ways to promote healthy ageing.
The OECD Workshop on Healthy Ageing and Biotechnology, held in November 2000 in Tokyo, brought together an interdisciplinary group of world experts in molecular biology, geriatrics, epidemiology, health economics, ethics and health policy. Their perspectives are the subject of this book and collectively help provide a better understanding of the issues and relative contribution that biotechnological solutions will make to the promotion of healthy ageing.
Please note that this title is only available on line, in pdf format.
Micro-organisms play a fundamental role in the environment. Yet their role is the result of complex biogeochemical processes by consortia of micro-organisms and the function of individual species is not clear in many cases.
This publication provides an overview of the current situation and relevant developments in environmental microbiology, as well as its potential application, which covers: use of micro-organisms for agriculture, production purposes, bioremediation, and cleaning purpose; environmental applications of microbial symbionts of insects; and environmental risk/safety assessment of the deliberate release of engineered micro-organisms.
These are the proceedings of the OECD Workshop on Biomass and Agriculture held in June 2003. The Workshop covered two broad themes: the contribution of agricultural biomass to sustainability; and the policy approaches for developing agricultural biomass. The book proposes a wealth of material relating to agricultural biomass, bio energy and biomaterials in OECD countries. It is hoped that this will contribute to the current and future debate on agricultural biomass, particularly in the context of agricultural policy reform and the advancement of policies for sustainable development.