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The future of rural areas is high on the domestic and international policy agenda. Restructuring of the agricultural sector, and accompanying reform of agricultural policies, and the challenge of meeting sustainable development objectives are key preoccupations in OECD countries. In the search for forward-looking and durable policy strategies, building on natural and cultural amenities is emerging as an important area of policy action, one which complements traditional, agriculture-oriented rural policies and places rural policy in the broader territorial development arena.
In most rural areas, the potential of many natural and cultural resources remains untapped. Harnessing such amenities, however, involves striking a balance between use and conservation. In many cases, maintenance of rural amenities depends on a degree of local economic activity -- without it there is a danger of degradation. At the same time, over-exploitation risks spoiling, often irreversibly, the essential value of the amenity. Because many natural and cultural features are public goods, with limited markets and hazy property rights, public policies are needed to strike the delicate balance between supply and demand.
This is a book about conflict. In that, it is certainly not alone, but it approaches the problem in three East African countries from the standpoint of economic analysis. The authors have not ignored social, ethnic and historical factors which led to conflict, but have identified economic realities which exacerbate the frictions created by the other factors. These realities include disparities in rural-urban income levels and in health, education and employment, and a system of clientilism which benefits a small group of civil servants to the detriment of the rest of the population. Having identified aggravating economic factors in conflict, the authors proceed to an appreciation of its economic cost, then propose economic policy changes which would tend towards reducing the potential for conflict.
One of a series of three volumes, this book concentrates on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
This book is about conflict. In that, it is certainly not alone, but it approaches the problem in five Southern African countries from the standpoint of economic analysis. While the authors have not ignored social, ethnic and historical factors which led to conflict, they have identified economic realities which exacerbate underlying friction. These realities include disparities in rural-urban income levels and in health, education and employment, and a system of clientilism which benefits a small group of civil servants to the detriment of the rest of the population. Having identified aggravating economic factors in conflict, the authors proceed to an appreciation of its economic cost, then propose economic policy changes which would tend towards reducing the potential for conflict.
One of a series of three volumes, this book concentrates on Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Pollution from transport is being cut substantially through exhaust emissions regulations and vehicle manufacturers’ investments in cleaner technologies. The benefits of these improvements, however, are delayed as car fleet renewal takes a decade on average in Europe. Car scrappage schemes can be used to accelerate the uptake of new, cleaner vehicles.
This publication analyses the effectiveness of these programmes in protecting the environment and reviews the schemes introduced to date in Europe and North America. Three complementary issues are addressed to help make pragmatic recommendations:
- What are the effects of scrapping schemes on the car market and the national economy?
- What are the effects of these programmes on the environment?
- And can scrappage schemes be useful in former socialist countries?
Since regaining independence in the early 1990s, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have developed effective competition policies, as part of a process toward achieving functioning market economies. All three countries have competition laws and competition agencies which enforce them. All three are entering a critical second phase in competition law enforcement as each is undertaking the difficult steps aimed at their full economic integration into Europe.
This is an appropriate time to review competition policy in the Baltic states and to develop future improvements. This publication presents the first comprehensive examination of competition law and policy in these three Baltic countries as well as the highlights of a conference held in Riga in May 1999.
The Central Asian/Transcaucasian region has the potential to become a significant producer and exporter of oil and gas. Estimates of its reserve base are on the scale of the North Sea. Over the next decade, as world oil demand continues to grow, the region will gain in importance by helping to diversify the sources of oil and gas for importing countries beyond traditional supply sources, including the Middle East. This comprehensive study provides detailed descriptions, data and analysis of the oil and gas sectors of Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It examines the potential for oil and gas production and exports, as well as technical, legal, financial and other barriers to fulfilling this potential. It also looks at export markets, investment frameworks and major investment projects underway and planned.
China’s rapid growth over the past twenty years has sparked a surging demand for energy. The Chinese made strenuous efforts to exploit their domestic resources; but growth eventually overwhelmed them and led to rising oil imports. Within the next decade, China’s oil imports are expected to grow rapidly and outstrip those of many OECD countries. Gas imports are also projected to increase as China switches to cleaner energy. Aware of its growing dependency on imported energy, China seeks a more prominent position in the existing global system of energy production and trade. Where it can, China seeks to open new connections in global markets. Increasingly, external energy policies are entwined in foreign economic and security policies in general. This book documents how China is creating energy relationships across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Russia, Central Asia and Africa. The Chinese are also intensively studying how the rest of the world operates in the energy sector. The position of this vast nation in the global energy markets can only grow stronger as time passes. Trade and investment are the main elements in China’s energy policy toward the rest of the world today. Before long, the Chinese may seek to participate in the actual management of overseas energy facilities.
The opening of energy markets is leading to increased competition, and the nuclear power industry must adapt if it is to meet this challenge. Internationally discussions are taking place among government authorities and electric utilities and vendors on how to deal with the rapid technical development and optimisation of nuclear fuel and its utilisation under new, more aggressive fuel management strategies. Improving reactor core monitoring systems is an important part of this process. Participants in a recent NEA workshop discussed how instrumentation, methods and models used in core monitoring can be validated or, if needed, improved and further developed to provide more reliable and detailed information on local power in the core and on other parameters indirectly affecting fuel duty. This book shows how the core monitoring system can be used to support reactor operation in normal and anticipated transient modes and to supply data used to derive initial key core parameters for transient and accident analysis.
This brochure is published within the framework of the activities of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables set up by OECD in 1962. It comprises comments and illustrations to facilitate the common interpretation of standards in force and is therefore a valuable tool for both the Inspection Authorities and professional bodies responsible for the application of standards or interested in the international trade in these products.
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, and an increasingly important participant on the international coal market. Paradoxically, while China is now a major coal exporter, it is also a coal importer. As China commits itself to further economic reform and increased involvement in the global economy, its coal industry faces major challenges of rationalisation and structural reform. Coal has been significantly affected by the recent slow-down in the Chinese economy. These pressures have provoked a major overhaul of the State coal administration, radical cuts in production, the restructuring of key state-owned coal mines and the planned closure of over 25,000 small mines. Coal will, however, remain the dominant energy source in China for the foreseeable future despite the strenuous efforts of the authorities to diversify the energy mix. The environmental consequences of continued heavy use of coal raise important issues not just for China but for all those committed to tackling climate change. This timely desktop report on coal in China, prepared by the Member companies of the IEA’s Coal Industry Advisory Board, examines the overriding importance of coal in China’s energy mix, recent technological developments and market trends, and the major challenges which China now faces.
The fight against the illegal entry, residence and employment of foreigners is one of the key priorities of the immigration policies of the OECD countries. This irregular migration continues to persist, albeit at different levels for different receiving countries, both in countries that have expressed a political will to manage migration flows more effectively and to fight against the trafficking of labour, and in those that continue to receive a large number of immigrants every year as part of an active policy to recruit permanent migrant workers. In the light of the growing role of trafficking networks and their increasingly active involvement in moving labour across international boundaries, enhanced co-operation at both national and international levels is required to develop policies for preventing and combating the employment of foreigners in an irregular situation. In particular, whatever is done to combat the hiring of illegal immigrants must address the problem of undeclared work in general, and not just the employment of illegal immigrants per se. Better information on the risks and penalties involved in the use of illegal labour should also be directed at both employers and workers in industries where these illegal practices are prevalent, but also at employers that resort to the use of undeclared labour only on an occasional basis and at sending countries. Various specific measures adopted by a number of Member countries, such as the requirement to notify relevant government agencies prior to hiring, fiscal incentives for the employment of legal workers or the streamlining of hiring formalities, might be applied in a larger number of countries. The forging of partnerships between the relevant government agencies and employers’ and employees’ associations in each country should also be encouraged, together with the extension of international co-operation to control and manage immigration flows more effectively.
This document offers advice to both test facility management and suppliers as to how they might meet GLP requirements through national accreditation schemes and/or working to formal national or international standards, or by adopting other measures which may be appropriate to a particular product.
This annual publication provides data on CO2 emissions from fuel combustion for over 140 countries broken down by fuel and by sector. Emissions were calculated using IEA energy databases and the default methods and emission factors from the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
As China's "open door" economic policies result in remarkably high and sustained levels of growth, demands on the skills and knowledge of its population have fundamentally changed with inevitable pressure on the education system.
This volume provides a distinct flavour of the challenges and opportunities inherent in the very fundamental reforms under way in the higher education sector in China, as seen through the eyes of some of those directly involved.
Is there a "new learning economy"? Do regions and cities play new roles in terms of governance and intervention in order to promote learning, innovation, productivity and economic performance at the local level? Such questions are high on the political agenda everywhere. This publication, which views the debate from the perspective of a regional learning economy, clearly answers in the affirmative. Of central importance is the idea that learning regions and cities, which are especially well attuned to the requirements of the new learning economy, may be fostered through the development of appropriate strategies of public governance and intervention. The relationships between various forms of learning and economic performance at the regional level are analysed and provide strong evidence of the importance of individual and firm-level organisational learning for regions’ economic performance. Case studies of five regions and cities indicate that social capital affects both individual and organisational learning.
GEOTRAP is the OECD/NEA Project on Radionuclide Migration in Geologic, Heterogeneous Media carried out in the context of site evaluation and safety assessment of deep repository systems for long-lived radioactive waste.
Performance assessment of proposed waste disposal sites requires models of radionuclide transport through the geosphere. To be used in repository planning and development, these models must have the confidence of both national waste management programmes and the wider scientific community. The fourth GEOTRAP workshop, "Confidence in Models of Radionuclide Transport for Site-specific Performance Assessment" held in June 1999, addressed the issue of technical confidence building and provided an overview of current developments in this field. Proposed approaches to confidence building and approaches that have already proven successful were presented and discussed.
In addition to the material presented during the workshop, this publication includes a technical synthesis reflecting the discussions that took place as well as the conclusions and recommendations made, notably during the working group sessions.
This volume is a comprehensive reference book on current trends in the world coal market and long-term prospects to 2010. It contains an in-depth analysis of the 1999 international coal market covering prices, demand, trade, supply and production capacity, as well as over 475 pages of country specific statistics on OECD and key non-OECD coal producing and consuming countries. In addition to country specific statistics, Coal Information has up-to-date data on coal-fired power stations in coal consuming countries and coal ports in exporting and importing countries. The book also contains a summary of climate change policies, CO2 emission limitation proposals and other environmental policies as they affect coal consumption; including particulate, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide emission limits for existing and new coal-fired boilers in OECD countries. Coal Information is one of a series of annual IEA statistical publications on major energy sources; other reports are Electricity Information, Oil Information and Natural Gas Information.
Most OECD countries, and many countries outside the OECD, are now deeply engaged in a reform of their electricity markets to stimulate competition and improve efficiency. This book considers the key elements of effective reform based on a review of experiences to date. A converging trend emerges, that emphasises competition in the generation, supply and trade of electricity, aimed at maximising consumer choice. It also highlights the development of new approaches to regulation of the transmission system, which remains monopolistic. This book is an invaluable guide and reference for energy policy makers. It examines the many issues and functions that define a modern, liberalised electricity supply industry, and the challenges posed by regulatory reform. It updates the 1999 IEA publication “Electricity Market Reform - an IEA Handbook”, and is the latest in a series of IEA publications on energy market reforms.
Chinese decision-makers are grappling with policy choices that will optimise the gains from China’s integration into the international trading system in harmony with social, regional and sustainable development goals. Trade liberalisation can significantly enhance the reform process underway and bring great benefits to China. But the agricultural sector faces the greatest challenges and potential hardships of any economic sector from this process. Significant domestic policy reform and structural adjustment will be critical to enable China to realise its comparative advantage in agriculture and to redeploy an estimated 150 million redundant farmers. To sharpen understanding of the policy options, the OECD invited Chinese and international experts to reflect together upon the likely impacts of freer trade on China’s agricultural sector. Based on the results of China’s WTO negotiations with key trading partners, they assessed the compatibility of China’s WTO commitments with domestic policies and the need for specific changes. They analysed the effects of likely policy changes on cereal, oilseeds and livestock markets in China and OECD countries. And they examined the implications of China’s WTO accession on rural enterprises, regional development and the domestic and international political economy. These proceedings offer the reader the fruits of timely analytical and strategic thinking and joint reflection on some of the most important agricultural policy issues for China and the world.