Myanmar's two decades of partial transition to a market economy : a negative legacy for the new government

Despite more than two decades of transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy, Myanmar’s economic transition is still only partly complete. The government’s initial strategy for dealing with the swelling deficits of the state economic enterprises (SEEs) was to put them under direct control in order to scrutinize their expenditures. This policy change postponed restructuring and exacerbated the soft budget constraint problem of the SEEs. While the installation of a new government in March 2011 has increased prospects for economic development, sustainable growth still requires full-scale structural reform of the SEEs and institutional infrastructure building. Myanmar can learn from the gradual approaches to economic transition in China and Vietnam, where partial reforms weakened further impetus for reforms.

Changing local elite selection in Thailand : emergence of new local government presidents after direct elections and their capabilities

Before rural local government units were established in Thailand, reform debates within the country faced a crucial issue: Candidates at the rural sub-district levels might adopt electioneering methods such as vote buying and the patronage system of the local political and economic elite, the methods that had been used in the national elections. In fact, the results of the 2006 survey in this paper, which followed the introduction of direct elections in rural local government units in 2003, contrast with the result anticipated during the debates on political reform. The preliminary data of the survey shows that the decentralization process and the introduction of the direct election system in the rural areas had some effect in changing the selection process of the local elite in Thailand.

Solving identity delegation problem in the e-government environment

At present, many countries allow citizens or entities to interact with the government outside the telematic environment through a legal representative who is granted powers of representation. However, if the interaction takes place through the Internet, only primitive mechanisms of representation are available, and these are mainly based on non-dynamic offline processes that do not enable quick and easy identity delegation. This paper proposes a system of dynamic delegation of identity between two generic entities that can solve the problem of delegated access to the telematic services provided by public authorities. The solution herein is based on the generation of a delegation token created from a proxy certificate that allows the delegating entity to delegate identity to another on the basis of a subset of its attributes as delegator, while also establishing in the delegation token itself restrictions on the services accessible to the delegated entity and the validity period of delegation. Further, the paper presents the mechanisms needed to either revoke a delegation token or to check whether a delegation token has been revoked. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Banking crises and government intervention

Intervention has taken different forms in different countries and periods of time. Moreover, recent episodes showed that in front of an imminent crisis, the promise of no interventions made by governments is barely credible. In this paper we address the problem of resolving banking crises from the government perspective, taking into account the fact that preventing banking crises is crucial for the government. In addition, we introduce the moral hazard problem, inherent in the banking system, and consider the interaction between regulation, policy measures and banks’ behavior. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that compares different policy plans to resolve banking crises in an environment where insufficiently capitalized banks have incentives to take risk, and the government has to decide whether to provide public services or impede crises. We show that when individuals highly value public services then the best policy in terms of welfare is to apply the tax on early withdrawals, as the government can transfer those taxes to the whole population by investing in public services (although at some cost). Conversely, when individuals assign a low value to consuming public services, recapitalization is the dominant policy. Finally, when the probability of a crisis is sufficiently high, capital requirements should be used

GESTÃO DO CONHECIMENTO EM ARRANJOS PRODUTIVOS LOCAIS ESTUDO DE CASO DO PÓLO BRASILEIRO DE COSMÉTICO EM DIADEMA

Esta pesquisa apresenta um estudo de caso cujo objetivo é analisar se arranjos produtivos locais realizam a prática da gestão do conhecimento. A pesquisa foi realizada junto ao Pólo Brasileiro de Cosmético em Diadema, organização sem fins lucrativos, que articula as ações de micro, pequenas e médias empresas organizadas em fabricantes de cosméticos, produtores de bens e serviços, fornecedores de matéria-prima, prestadores de consultoria, comercializadores, clientes e parceiros. Para atender ao objetivo proposto recorreu-se a recursos quantitativo e qualitativo, com a utilização de formulários eletrônicos estruturados, disponibilizados na internet e técnicas da observação participante, envolvendo visitas previamente agendadas ao Pólo de Cosmético. O material de análise utilizou a pesquisa bibliográfica sobre arranjo produtivo local e gestão do conhecimento, caracterização da região do grande ABC e da cidade de Diadema, dados oficiais, políticas governamentais e entrevistas com o corpo diretivo do Pólo. Foi aplicado o instrumento de Terra (2005) que a partir de sete dimensões (estratégia e alta administração, sistemas de informação e comunicação, cultura organizacional, organização e processos de trabalho, políticas e práticas para a administração de recursos humanos e mensuração de resultados), avaliou se as organizações do arranjo produtivo realizam a prática da gestão do conhecimento. Os resultados obtidos apontaram a existência de práticas de gestão do conhecimento, com índices acima da média, convergindo para o entendimento de que se trata de um processo de gestão empresarial, além de confirmar, a partir de um sistema de intercâmbio social a origem do Pólo e seu desenvolvimento.(AU)

GESTÃO DO CONHECIMENTO EM ARRANJOS PRODUTIVOS LOCAIS ESTUDO DE CASO DO PÓLO BRASILEIRO DE COSMÉTICO EM DIADEMA

Esta pesquisa apresenta um estudo de caso cujo objetivo é analisar se arranjos produtivos locais realizam a prática da gestão do conhecimento. A pesquisa foi realizada junto ao Pólo Brasileiro de Cosmético em Diadema, organização sem fins lucrativos, que articula as ações de micro, pequenas e médias empresas organizadas em fabricantes de cosméticos, produtores de bens e serviços, fornecedores de matéria-prima, prestadores de consultoria, comercializadores, clientes e parceiros. Para atender ao objetivo proposto recorreu-se a recursos quantitativo e qualitativo, com a utilização de formulários eletrônicos estruturados, disponibilizados na internet e técnicas da observação participante, envolvendo visitas previamente agendadas ao Pólo de Cosmético. O material de análise utilizou a pesquisa bibliográfica sobre arranjo produtivo local e gestão do conhecimento, caracterização da região do grande ABC e da cidade de Diadema, dados oficiais, políticas governamentais e entrevistas com o corpo diretivo do Pólo. Foi aplicado o instrumento de Terra (2005) que a partir de sete dimensões (estratégia e alta administração, sistemas de informação e comunicação, cultura organizacional, organização e processos de trabalho, políticas e práticas para a administração de recursos humanos e mensuração de resultados), avaliou se as organizações do arranjo produtivo realizam a prática da gestão do conhecimento. Os resultados obtidos apontaram a existência de práticas de gestão do conhecimento, com índices acima da média, convergindo para o entendimento de que se trata de um processo de gestão empresarial, além de confirmar, a partir de um sistema de intercâmbio social a origem do Pólo e seu desenvolvimento.(AU)

Libya’s new unity government faces the mother of all rebuilding jobs

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Military and government applications of human-machine communication by voice.

This paper describes a range of opportunities for military and government applications of human-machine communication by voice, based on visits and contacts with numerous user organizations in the United States. The applications include some that appear to be feasible by careful integration of current state-of-the-art technology and others that will require a varying mix of advances in speech technology and in integration of the technology into applications environments. Applications that are described include (1) speech recognition and synthesis for mobile command and control; (2) speech processing for a portable multifunction soldier's computer; (3) speech- and language-based technology for naval combat team tactical training; (4) speech technology for command and control on a carrier flight deck; (5) control of auxiliary systems, and alert and warning generation, in fighter aircraft and helicopters; and (6) voice check-in, report entry, and communication for law enforcement agents or special forces. A phased approach for transfer of the technology into applications is advocated, where integration of applications systems is pursued in parallel with advanced research to meet future needs.