Supply-Side Structural Reforms and China's Potential Economic Growth Rate

This paper examines the effect of supply-side structural reforms on China＇s potential economic growth rate in the coming decade according to the data the authors have gathered. Under the rapid growth scenario with the implementation of supply-side structural reforms, China＇s potential economic growth rate will reach an average of 6.5% and 5.8% respectively in the 13th Five-year Plan （2016-2020） and 14th Five-year Plan （2021-2025） periods. These rates are 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points higher, respectively, than that under the baseline scenario with the inertia of historic trends. In implementing supply-side structural reforms, China must transform governmental functions, break monopolies, create a comprehensive competitive market environment, foster the creation of pro-innovation mechanisms, refocus on quality and efficiency, and raise capital utilization and labor productivity.

China’s Potential Economic Growths during 2015-2025 under Different Scenarios~

China has entered a crucial period of further growth and restructuring that will last until 2025. Based on a review of the major factors affecting China＇s potential economic growth, this paper has created an integrated economic system model consisting of system dynamics, econometrics, and input-output for the forecast of China＇s economic size and structure by 2025. Analysis shows that prior to 2025, China will be able to maintain a potential annual economic growth rate of 5.7%-7.2%. Faced with an international environment of a possible slowdown of advanced economies and diminishing demographic dividends, China needs to further expedite its urbanization process, enhance R＆D and education spending, increase total factor productivity （TFP）, vigorously develop the tertiary sector, and expand consumption in order to achieve the optimistically estimated growth of 6.6%-7.4% during the period of 2015-2025. Economic growth should be accompanied by the upgrade of industry structure and improvement of investment and consumption structures.

China’s Economic Growth and High-Quality Development:2020-2035

The time period between 2020 and 2035 is vital for China to achieve its second centennial goal.During this period,China must avoid the middle-income trap and achieve socialist modernization.To accomplish this goal,China must maintain a certain pace of economic growth and strive to double its real GDP per capita by 2035.However,by the current growth trajectory,China’s average economic growth rate is expected to stay at approximately 3.8%over the period between 2020-2035.This makes the GDP per capita growth target hard to achieve.Even when in a high-quality development stage,China should speed up economic growth while enhancing growth quality.Speed and quality are interdependent rather than contradictory with each other.To ramp up economic growth potentials,China must proceed with market-oriented reforms and shift economic growth drivers.To improve economic growth quality,household consumption should be increased to unleash China’s full potential,not only as the factory floor of the world but also one of world’s biggest markets,i.e.“dual circulations.”With appropriate policy response,China’s economy will be poised to achieve the goal of doubling real GDP per capita by 2035,marking a large stride in its economic aggregate and urban and rural household per capita incomes.

Permanence of Economic Potential of Cities Based on Sector Development

The paper attempts to answer the following key question: how will a city′s world rank change in the face of crisis in its main economic sector? Crisis is defined here as a decline in financial performance in the given sector, which leads to the decline of its constituent firms and corporations on the world economic scene. The World Economic Center Index(WECI) has been created in order to rank cities based on the value of their resident corporations by sector and show their level of stability upon the removal of the most important sector. This provides information on the potential of each analyzed city as well as on its advanced features or area of specialization. Research has shown that nearly half the World Economic Centers are dominated by the financial and materials sectors of the economy. Different sectors dominate different regions of the world. For example, consumer staples and materials were dominant in North America, while information technology and financials were dominant in Europe. In Asia, several sectors tend to dominate the economy. Research has shown that the ability of a principal economic sector to resist economic crisis largely depends on the strength of the command and control function of a city. Finally, a high globalization level of a city is a key determinant of its susceptibility to economic crisis.

Constraints on Camel Meat and Milk Marketing and Strategies for Its Improvement in Northern Kenya

A survey to identify constraints and design strategies to improve the camel milk and meat value chains was conducted in northern Kenya using Participatory Integrated Community Development （PICD）, Focus Group Discussions （FGD）, among other methods. In a second step, field testing of an intervention on milk and meat hygiene was carried out at household level. Survey results indicated that about 50% of marketable camel milk was not sold, 30% of marketed camel milk per annum was sold in sour state at US$ 0.13 lower that the price of a litre of fresh milk while processed meat got spoiled along the chain. Annual economic losses associated with milk spoilage were estimated at US$ 961,538.5. Preliminary findings of the field testing indicated that an additional 3 million litres of camel milk was sold in fresh state, giving an annual saving of US$ 384,615.4. Increased profitability of up to 60% compared to 30% before the intervention was reported among nyirinyiri processors. In conclusion, economic potential of the camel could be fully exploited by facilitating adoption of interventions such as hygiene, among others at all levels of the camel milk and meat value chains.

IPT＇s Quick ＆ Dirty Economic Valuation Method： An Empirical Test on Three Cases

The assessment of economic potential of technological innovation projects and its valuation are key aspects in negotiations among universities, research institutes, and companies. Among the reasons for this, it can be quoted portfolio prioritization, which involves several different economic, social, and environmental impacts aspects and industrial productivity. The standard of economic potential is an important reference in the project selection process. For technology transfer, the valuation of technologies consists in a relevant task to support intellectual property （IP） negotiations. However, in dynamic environments, negotiations for the commercial exploitation and payment of IP resulting from research projects require quick answers, due to several aspects like tight deadlines to sign contracts. Moreover, technology valuation is one of the most complex activities related to the technology transfer. Due to these challenges faced by Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnol6gicas do Estado de S~,o Paulo （IPT--Institute For Technological Research） in its participation in Brazilian Association of Industrial Innovation （EMBRAPII, acronym in Brazilian Portuguese）, authors developed an expedite technology valuation method, based on concepts of discounted cash flow （DCF） associated with Gompertz curve adaptations as a way to support universities and research institutes in negotiations with enterprises. This method has been regularly applied on negotiations between 1PT and companies. This paper will present cases of metallurgical companies. The results obtained confirm the validity of the method in supporting the definition of the payable amounts for commercial exploitation of technologies, enabling the application of this method as an alternative to some methods found in the literature and eventually employed by universities and research institutes in Brazil. For future research, authors recommend comparative studies between Gompertz curve and other methods, such as the Pearl curve, using the same variables of our method.

The Feasibility and Economic Potential of Geoduck Aquaculture in Neah Bay, Washington

The geoduck clam, Panopea abrupta, is an economically important species and mainly cultured in the Southern Puget Sound of Washington State. There are no examples of intertidal geoduck aquaculture in Neah Bay. Since 2011, the Makah Fisheries Management （MFM） has started a pilot project supported by the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Business Enterprise Grant （USDA-RBEG）. The MFM aquaculture practice and results showed that the Neah Bay beaches are feasible for intertidal geoduck aquaculture, and have the proper conditions to produce high quality geoduck clams. As compared to finfish culture, there is little environmental concern for geoduck aquaculture due to the natural seawater fluctuation （no artificial feeding） and the intertidal nature （no genetic mixing）. This advantage provides the opportunity for community members of all backgrounds to partake in the aquaculture process, with low investment costs for establishing a family-based geoduck farming business. Overall, the high market value and the economic potential make geoduck aquaculture an ideal candidate in development of remote and rural areas along the Washington coast.

Energy and Autohydrolysis By-Products from Industrial Crops

The world is experiencing a growing shortage of raw materials which is especially severe in the energy sector and being worsened by the unfavorable environmental impact of a consumerist cultttre revolving around the exploitation of non-renewable resources. In this work, the calorific value and chemical composition of liquors resulting from the autohydrolysis of six different lignocellulosic materials was determined （Eucalyptus globulus, Arundo donax, Leucaena diversifolia, Paulownia fortunei, Sunflower stalks and Chamaecytisus proliferus） and was assessed for the obtainment of energy, sugars and other chemical products by using of integral fractionation based on autohydrolysis. Autohydrolysis processes have been considered interesting in the case of timber species studied compared with herbaceous species with variations in the extraction of the xylan fraction at 180℃ between 19.68% for Eucalyptus globulus and 36.79% for Leucaena diversifolia and 200℃ between 57.86% for Paulawniafortunei and 79.13 % for Chamaecytisusproliferus. In general, all materials show a solid fraction ＂more energy＂ from the hydrolysis to 200℃ than 180℃ and raw materials. It is interesting as the potential economy valuation of the liquid fractions of the hydrolysis, the solid waste recovery present more energetic profitability.

The Future Prospect for the Evolution of Islamic Banking in Turkey

In Turkey, banks having ＂Islamic＂ features that are long neglected have experienced strong business growth since 2003 that is just after the date of a moderate Islamic party which emerged victorious in parliamentary elections. While Turkey has only four ＂Islamic＂ banks, they capture more than 4% market share. The purpose of this research is to analyze the mechanisms that have allowed such a growth between 2002 （just after the financial crisis in 2001） and 2009, by comparing the results of activities of these four Islamic banks and find out possible opportunities that might exist in this sector. The results indicate that these institutions have a respectively higher risk-taking and internationally more fair open policy than the banks known as ＂conventional＂. While Bank Asya （the market leader of the participatory banks in Turkey） and Albaraka Turk capture the individual customers, the other two institutions that are TurkiyeFinans and Kuveyt Turk capture the commercial customers. In addition, the development of these institutions seems to be very difficult because of the lack of Turkish Sukuk in Turkish banking context having no adequate liquidity. Moreover, in its political context, leading actors in Turkish political and economic structure reject utterly the existence of Sharia Board. In fact, it is clear that the Turkish banking sector is an untapped potential market that could be easily converted into an opportunity by improving the regulatory framework and communication strategy for these institutions. Indeed, since the controversy still exists around the concept of secularism, which is an impediment to the development of these banks called ＂Islamic＂ in Turkey, there is a necessity for a communication strategy to break down prejudices and to become popular for Islamic finance sector, which is still known very poorly and superficially by general public in Turkey.

Energy Potential of Canton of Tuzla （Bosnia and Herzegovina） and Possibilities of Its Rational Economic-Industrial Exploitation

Canton of Tuzla takes cca 2,650 km2 area of north-east Bosnia and Herzegovina. Economic structure of this geographic region, traditionally, dominates the energetic. In the last few years, this part Bosnia and Herzegovina produces near 4 million tons of coal, which is over 40% of coal producing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over 80% produced coal is burning away in local thermal power plants, where is producing cea 3,000 GWh electro energy. Today, Canton of Tuzla is starting the restructuration process of energetic sector towards improving its efficiency. Therefore, we expect the similar problems, as in other transition regions （e.g., closing some coal pits, ecology, reduction of labour, etc.）. Also, we should take all well known fact that investing in energy capacities last over five years, and in this propriety time, here will not be any adequate thermal power plants as a relevant substitute. According to European Energy Charter, south-east Europe is forced to give up from technological outdated and economic inefficiency productive capacities, so the situation is becoming more complicated. For its welfare, it is essential to speed up all investment and reconstruction by using all available resources, as domestic, as foreign. Hence, this paper presents technical-technological and economic analysis of the energy problems in Canton of Tuzla, and of course, it＇s possible solving in near future.

The possibilities of entering new markets for Romanian companies from wood manufacturing industries

Romania has the potential of resources, labor and real capacity to adapt to the gait of a global economic competition. But it required a long term policy and environment which could support this potential value. If not, we will risk turning into a consumer economy, consumption will not be funded on internal production and become supplier of labor services for peripheral. In the context of economic crisis, Romanian furniture retains its significant competitive advantages, including the price in export markets. The most important markets for exporters of furniture from Romania are Ukraine and Russia, markets with great potential, but affected by problems such as devaluing local currencies, and recently, imposing new duties.

The Food Safety and Consumer Behavior

Food is becoming increasingly a world problem. Determining factors in food consumption are price, income, culture, desires, preferences, and food safety. Price and income are main factors but not the only guide for consumers. Food safety is becoming an equal factor in importance just as price and income in food consumption. Many individuals consider that potential risk of food consumption is too high compared to health benefits that they may provide. In recent times, because of food-related health crises, consumers are losing their confidence. Consumer confidence is lost and in order to regain the lost confidence, governments are setting high food standards, however, millions of people fall ill and economic cost is high. This article intends to provide an overview of the current food safety and consumer behavior, based on reviews of the existing literature.

Clusters, Governance and Sustainability

One of the most important aspects of current economical and social reality of each local and regional territory, and very much determinative for its economic development potential, is the nature of its territorial organization of the productive processes, as well as, the characteristics, and sophistication level, of the enterprise strategies that are functioning in it. This paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the role of clusters as engines of economic and social development and sustainability of local and regional territories. Based on a study research methodology, we intend to answer to the following research questions： （1） What is the importance of clusters in the increment process of the local and regional conditions of governance and sustainability？ （2） How specific models of clusters＇ governance can contribute to greater territorial setting of enterprises and to increasing the sustainability of its development strategies？ （3） To what extent industrial public policies can increase the sustainability of development solutions for local and regional economies？

Valuing Potential Benefits of Research into the Biological Control of Californian Thistle （Cirsium arvense）： A Bioeconomic Model

The present research developed a bioeconomic model for control of Californian thistle （Cirsium arvense L. Scop.） in intensive, lowland sheep pastures in New Zealand. Production costs included two control methods： herbicides and defoliation, with defoliation encompassing both physical means and biocontrol measures. The model was used to examine the economic value of a research programme into biological control of the weed, given several different future scenarios. These scenarios were high herbicide prices, a price premium for lamb raised without chemical herbicides, and development of herbicide resistance. The model results were used to estimate national impacts. If the only change in the agricultural sector was the cost of the biocontrol to the nation＇s farmers, the research programme to find an effective biocontrol agent had little economic impact. If other factors changed, such as the price of petroleum or levels of herbicide resistance in the weed. the model＇s results suggested that intensive sheep farming could grow or shrink by as much as NZ$219 million dollars over five years. In the latter case, having an alternative control method reduced potential losses and increased potential gains, resulting in a net benefit of between NZ$81 million and NZ$153 million. This work extended prior research in several ways. First. Californian thistle reproduces via root buds, which affected the modelling of weed behaviour. Secondly, the model allowed optimistation over continuous levels of weed control for two different methods. Thirdly, the model accounted for both weed control and damage to nitrogen-fixing clover from herbicide use. Finally, the research investigated optimal weed control in several different alternative future states.

最后的海女

水天无垠,天水一色。季节的边缘,风萧水冷。闪霎间,她面朝大海抖现芳姿的一跃,是一次精神品格的完成。比一尾鱼还要舒展还要轻灵……是的,轻灵。如果把朝鲜半岛比作感叹号,火山岛济州,就是孤悬下面的圆点。或若,黄海的一滴水,一滴泪。那里,回响着一个炫彩的名字——海女。若干万年前,海底火山活动形成的济州岛,岩浆凝石遍布每个角落,耕地瘠薄,只宜于,种植荒凉。为活路生途,

Development of Urban Agglomerations of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Conditions of the Formation of the New Silk Road

The paper deals with current issues of the regional spatial organization based on the identification and analysis of key factors and prerequisites for the formation of urban agglomerations as the most important growth centers, integrated with global and regional markets in the conditions of a qualitatively new stage in the history of the Great Silk Road. We assess promising directions and negative effects of development of agglomerated formations and zones of their influence in the Republic of Kazakhstan as a region having an advantageous geostrategic position in the Eurasian space. In Kazakhstan, the current process of urbanization has a multiple- vector nature, and the course of formation of urban agglomerations provides convincing evidence of an increase in their share in settlement and in the total population. It is agglomerated forms of urban development that are a kind of indicator of the onset of maturity in settlement, specifying key points of the socio-economic space, namely： cores of regions, nodes of foreign economic relations and contacts, main areas of new territories development, the most important links in the internal infrastructure, etc. It is urban agglomerations that should act as a kind of special platform of integration processes, on the basis of which the Republic of Kazakhstan should revive its historical role in the development of the global project ＂New Silk Road＂ and become a major trade and logistics, finance and business, innovation and technology, and tourism hub of the Central Asia region, a bridge between Europe and Asia.

An organizational model and border port hinterlands for the China-Europe Railway Express

Facilities connectivity is a priority area for implementing the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). The "China-Europe Railway Express"(CER Express) mode of transport organization links China with Europe by fast-track cargo rail. A major instance of facilities connectivity related to this project is an important practical and symbolic instance of BRI transport cooperation. The strategic significance of the CER Express and a number of operational issues are outlined, as are the implications of limited market potential for costs and competitiveness. A "hub-and-spoke" organizational model that can generate scale economies and reduce costs is proposed. To examine the establishment of an organizational model of this kind, the economic hinterlands of Alashankou, Erenhot, and Manzhouli are identified under high-, mediumand low-cost scenarios using an analytical methodology that determines distance and economic costs, and a number of transport hubs(that include Harbin, Zhengzhou, and Lanzhou) are identified. The results found that the cost of the routes from 314 Chinese cities to Moscow is the lowest via Manzhouli in the high-and medium-cost scenarios, but the routes change via Erenhot in the low-cost scenario. A number of policy recommendations should follow up.