Governing the Palm-Oil Sector through Finance: The Changing Roles of the Indonesian State

By analysing the different roles of the Indonesian state in arranging finance schemes for palm-oil development since 1945, this article aims to answer two questions: What are these roles? And to what extent have they prioritised or balanced economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection? We conclude that the state has never been absent from the palm-oil industry but has had different and changing financing roles that are historically contingent and shaped by the evolving economic and political landscape. Furthermore, these roles reflect Indonesia’s priorities of achieving economic growth through palm-oil development, furthering social equity, and, recently, promoting environmental sustainability.     

鲜桑叶与干桑叶精油的挥发性组分分析

利用气质联用仪对水蒸馏法提取鲜桑(Morusalba)叶与干桑叶的精油挥发性组分进行分析,二者均含有醇类化合物、酸类化合物、烃类化合物、酮类化合物和酯类化合物。鲜桑叶精油挥发性组分中第一主成分为植醇,干桑叶精油挥发性组分中第一主成分为棕榈酸。鲜桑叶精油中含有丁基化羟基甲苯和质量分数较高的植醇,具有开发为化妆品的潜在价值。     

Leverage vs. feedback: Which Effect drives the oil market?

This article brings new insights on the role played by (implied) volatility on the WTI crude oil price. An increase in the volatility subsequent to an increase in the oil price (i.e. inverse leverage effect) remains the dominant effect as it might reflect the fear of oil consumers to face rising oil prices. However, this effect is amplified by an increase in the oil price subsequent to an increase in the volatility (i.e. inverse feedback effect) with a two-day delayed effect. This lead-lag relation between the oil price and its volatility is central to any type of trading strategy based on futures and options on the OVX implied volatility index. It is of interest to traders, risk- and fund-managers.     

浅谈长输油气管道建设项目质量成本控制措施

介绍了项目质量成本的概念及内涵，分析了质量和成本之间的辩证关系，总结了消减质量成本的7项措施，并提出了质量改进成本投入与收益平衡分析的建议。实践证明，通过增加预防与改进成本，可提高项目施工质量，有效降低鉴定成本和非一致性成本，最终降低项目总的质量成本，大幅度提高项目经济效益。     

Quantile serial dependence in crude oil markets: evidence from improved quantilogram analysis with quantile wild bootstrapping

We examine the quantile serial dependence in crude oil prices based on the Linton and Whang’s quantile-based portmanteau test which we improved by means of quantile wild bootstrapping (QWB). Through Monte Carlo simulation, we find that the quantile wild bootstrap-based portmanteau test performs better than the bound testing procedure suggested by Linton and Whang. We apply the improved test to examine the efficiency of two crude oil markets – WTI and Brent. We also examine if the dependence is stable via rolling sample tests. Our results show that both WTI and Brent are serially dependent in all, except the median quantiles. These findings suggest that it may be misleading to examine the efficiency of crude oil markets in terms of mean (or median) returns only. These crude oil markets are relatively more serially dependent in non-median ranges.     

利用可调油嘴实现掺水量合理定量化的探讨

将抽油机井井口控制掺水量的闸门或档板改装设计成可调油嘴,使单井掺水量的控制更加方便灵活,减少岗位工人的劳动强度,同时对合理控制单井回油温度,提高和稳定掺水系统压力很有效。     

Allocating and taxing rights to state-owned minerals

Is Indonesia using the most effective possible strategies to derive revenue from its mineral resources? Auctions and work program bidding are the main ways of allocating mineral leases. In addition to the company taxes applied to all companies, governments can raise revenue from minerals owned by the state through auctions, royalties and rent taxes paid by private firms, and through dividends from state-owned firms. Indonesia uses work program bidding to allocate leases, and its production-sharing contracts are roughly equivalent to a rent tax at a high rate. This paper considers these options for raising revenues from mineral resources. It argues that efficiency and government revenue would both be increased if Indonesia relaxed direct controls on the operations of mining companies, and allocated leases by means of auctions, combined with a much lower rate of rent tax or, better still, a royalty.     

中石油与苏丹的油气合作浅析

本文分析了南苏丹独立后中石油与苏丹油气合作面临的机遇、挑战及现状,针对合作中存在的问题提出中石油应通过结构性安排规避政治风险、提高项目管理能力、培养国际化人才、实施本土化策略等对策。     

The ECFA and its expected effect on cross-strait trade and investment: a Taiwanese perspective

To come to terms with the realization of ASEAN+1, Taiwan had concluded with mainland China a special free trade agreement (FTA), the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June 2010. This framework agreement provides an early harvest agreement of near-term tariff elimination, including detailed product schedules for goods and services from each side, with the final shape of fuller trade liberalization in goods and services taking years to negotiate and realize. The conclusion of the ECFA has been considered as a major breakthrough in cross-strait talks and economic relationships, even though it is by no means free from controversies inside Taiwan. The authors are therefore motivated by hot debates in Taiwan to reflect on the expected trade effect of the ECFA by taking into account the factor of cross-strait global production networks. In particular, we examine with a proposed model and statistical robustness, the trend of Taiwan-based firms' localization in mainland China, driven in part by constant movements in global production networks, which generates complicated and dynamic relationships between Taiwan's investment-induced trade and structural shift in Taiwan's exports to mainland China. Based on our empirical findings, we reflect on the conventional views on the trade effect of the free trade agreement. The results of our analyses tend to support a cautious view about the trade effect of the ECFA. Without denying the significance of the ECFA and deepening cross-strait economic relationships, we argue that the impact of the ECFA should be interpreted in a wider context than just the trade perspective, as the conventional wisdom and the existing evaluations suggested.