Alternatives to local content requirements in resource-rich countries

This paper discusses whether and to what extent resource-rich developing countries should introduce local content policies, i.e. requirements to include local inputs in petroleum extraction activities of multinational corporations. We argue that local content needs to be seen as a public expenditure question, since local content requirements increase multinational costs, and hence reduce the taxes which can be extracted from these companies. This implies that there are opportunity costs in imposing local content requirements, since the forgone taxes can be used in others ways which could potentially do more to improve development prospects. Moreover, past experiences of resource-rich developing countries suggest that local content policies can exacerbate key problems of patronage and rent-seeking which resource rents generate, increasing the chance that the resource wealth will prevent rather than help development. These arguments suggest that an optimal local content policy in the context of flawed institutions is a more limited one than those typically pursued by developing countries with recently discovered petroleum reserves. Using qualitative data from Tanzania, a country with recent discoveries of substantial natural gas deposits, we analyze why local content tends to become such a central issue in debates and policy processes, despite its potentially problematic aspects.     

Is there decentralization in North Korea? Evidence and lessons from the sloping land management program 2004–2014

In the 1990s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) suffered from severe food shortages and large-scale deforestation, which triggered a stage of rural conservation reform. Since 2004, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), North Korea’s Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection (MoLEP) has implemented a Sloping Land Management Program (SLMP). The SLMP established sloping land user groups and granted these groups the right to use marginal land for agroforestry development. This devolution of land rights from state control onto local groups is a landmark in North Korea, and this decentralization initiative has now expanded to over eight counties to involve thousands of households. It has also led to the launch of a National Agroforestry Policy and Strategy. Drawing from both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 2008 to 2014, this paper documents the process and effects of the SLMP. It argues that the decentralization reform in land management has contributed to not only food security with increased food crop diversity and productivity, but also notably forest recovery through an expansion of tree plantations and agroforestry practices on degraded sloping lands. However, an insufficient power transfer in the form of a lack of timber rights granted to the local user groups has hampered the effectiveness of the SLMP. There are also institutional and geopolitical challenges that are limiting further scaling-up of land-use decentralization across the country. The policy implication calls for more international investment as well as national land-use policy reforms in order to promote and facilitate further decentralization of sloping land management and to secure greater use rights for sloping land user groups.     

悬河奇观·历史文化·特色品牌--黄河开封段旅游开发设想

黄河开封段具有独特的自然景观和人文内涵,其旅游开发具有优越的条件;分析了该河段旅游资源的特色和开发条件,认为现悬河奇观、串历史文化和创特色品牌是黄河开封段旅游开发应坚持的思路;对旅游开发的原则、目标定位、旅游功能分区和旅游设计进行分析,提出了开发的对策和建议。     

辽宁东部水源涵养林计量指标体系及其效益评估

对辽东山区水源涵养林产生的各种效益进行计量评价研究,制定了水源涵养林计量效益评价指标体系,包括3级结构、16项指标、49项因子;依各功能因子的重要性并经测算,对各项指标赋予权重和排序,森林的蓄水、减少径流、改善水质功能的权重值较高;采用条件价值法,估算辽东山区水源涵养林的各种功能价值,森林的林副产品和木材收益的功能价值较高。辽东山区水源涵养林按整体处在一般经营状态下计算,年均创造功能价值约为30.2亿元。     

现阶段我国农用地管理的目标转变和实现途径

从分析我国农用地利用和管理的现状入手,针对我国农用地利用和管理重“数量”轻“质量”的问题,提出在城市化快速发展阶段,我国农用地管理的目标必须实现战略转变,即由“数量管理”转变为“数量和质量并重管理”。文章认为,正在全国开展的农用地分等定级和估价工作为实现这一目标提供了有力的技术支撑,并对应用农用地分等定级和估价成果实现这一目标的技术思路进行探讨。     

基于BP模型的中国水产品出口规模预测研究

由于我国的信息咨询体系发展落后,水产品国际贸易缺乏及时、可靠的预测,导致我国水产品生产存在一定的盲目性,因此信息技术领域已经作为渔业科技十大重点发展领域之一,被列入农业部的工作重点.但是,水产品贸易受许多因素的影响,是一个高度复杂的非线性系统,使用传统的预测方法建立的模型很难对水产品贸易进行较为准确的预测,而利用BP神经网络建立的水产品贸易模型,己利用历史数据对模型进行了训练,最终可得到较为满意的结果.     

西部开发与区域经济发展的若干理论问题

西部开发过程中需要进一步加强理论研究 ,充分发挥理论的指导作用。本文首先指出 ,西部开发是地区平衡发展的要求。其次西部地区要培养新的增长极 ,发展具有创新能力的行业和主导产业部门 ;要积极创建自己的高技术产业 ,实现超越发展。     

学科文化建设的理性认识与思考--学科文化及其与学科建设和发展的关系

学科文化与学科建设、学科发展之间有形影相随的相互关系。学科文化,简而言之,是在学科建设与发展过程中形成的以管理为目的、能有效指导学科建设实践的文化体系,也是以文化为内容和手段的科学的学科建设理论体系和管理体系。     

环境与自然资源经济学研究的新趋势

在总结欧美发达国家环境与自然资源经济学研究成果的基础上,系统地论述了本学科研究的新课题和发展趋势。不确定性问题研究及新理论工具的引入将是本学科理论创新的焦点：环境与资源价值评估主要集中于发展新的方法和检验假设;资源经济学研究,将把生态效益、环境效益、政策法规引入资源开发模型;经济增长与环境、资源的相互关系,将成为重要的研究课题;应用研究与交叉学科研究将成为本学科未来发展的主题。     

西部大开发与云南矿业发展的战略思考

文章对云南省在建立矿业支柱产业过程中矿业发展所面临的一系列现实问题进行了分析,论述了矿业作为云南省国民经济支柱产业不可动摇的地位,进而指出了加强矿业支柱产业建设应采取的对策与措施.