Competitiveness and efficiency in land transport

One of the consequences of the opening of the worlds economies - an integral part of globalization - is increased focus on the efficiency and costs of transport services (on which competitiveness is largely dependent). Countries with inefficient and costly transport services lose out, in terms of economic activity and income, to those with more appropriate transport services. The issue is particularly important in Latin America, where exports mainly consist of bulk consignments of products with comparatively low value/quantity ratios and transport costs are a major determining factor of c.i.f. prices.The determination of competitiveness indices in the long term, however, also needs to include the costs of pollution, congestion and accidents, in addition to the transport costs usually considered as part of the price of freight. Competitiveness, efficiency and the global costs of transport were the main subjects of an international seminar organized in conjunction with the Chilean Institute of Engineers and held on 9 and 10 September 2004 at the Headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Elucidación del término “competitividad nacional” y análisis de su medición

El presente trabajo contiene un análisis profundo sobre el concepto de Competitividad Nacional y la pertinencia de su medición. El principal objetivo del estudio es aclarar la esencia de tan trascendental y utilizado término, así como la lógica imperante en los más reconocidos índices de medición de la competitividad de las naciones a nivel mundial. En el capítulo 1 se presentan los primeros pasos en el proceso de elucidación, metodología que se eligió para examinar a fondo el término; incluye la revisión histórica del concepto y las posiciones de reconocidas personalidades en el campo entorno a la definición del mismo. El segundo capítulo contiene un razonamiento personal sobre la naturaleza del término y lo que significa ser competitivo como país y, continuando con la metodología del capítulo anterior, se extraen las ideas clave y comunes de los autores citados para concluir con una propuesta de definición de Competitividad Nacional. El tercer capítulo es una presentación de los índices de medición del Foro Económico Mundial (Reporte Global de Competitividad) y de la escuela de negocios IMD (Anuario Mundial de Competitividad), para culminar esta sección con un análisis comparativo entre ambos. El cuarto capítulo es un análisis crítico sobre la validez de estos índices. Por último, el lector encontrará las conclusiones y reflexiones finales de la investigación.

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Biochemical indices and life traits of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) from Cape Verde Islands

The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is an endangered marine reptile for whom assessing population health requires knowledge of demographic parameters such as individual growth rate. In Cape Verde, as within several populations, adult female loggerhead sea turtles show a size-related behavioral and trophic dichotomy. While smaller females are associated with oceanic habitats, larger females tend to feed in neritic habitats, which is reflected in their physiological condition and in their offspring. The ratio of RNA/DNA provides a measure of cellular protein synthesis capacity, which varies depending on changes in environmental conditions such as temperature and food availability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the combined use of morphometric data and biochemical indices as predictors of the physiological condition of the females of distinct sizes and hatchlings during their nesting season and how temperature may influence the physiological condition on the offspring. Here we employed biochemical indices based on nucleic acid derived indices (standardized RNA/DNA ratio-sRD, RNA concentration and DNA concentration) in skin tissue as a potential predictor of recent growth rate in nesting females and hatchling loggerhead turtles. Our major findings were that the physiological condition of all nesting females (sRD) decreased during the nesting season, but that females associated with neritic habitats had a higher physiological condition than females associated with oceanic habitats. In addition, the amount of time required for a hatchling to right itself was negatively correlated with its physiological condition (sRD) and shaded nests produced hatchlings with lower sRD. Overall, our results showed that nucleic acid concentrations and ratios of RNA to DNA are an important tool as potential biomarkers of recent growth in marine turtles. Hence, as biochemical indices of instantaneous growth are likely temperature-, size- and age-dependent, the utility and validation of these indices on marine turtles stocks deserves further study.

Competitiveness of the Indonesian construction industry

Indonesia’s construction industry is important to the national economy. However, its competitiveness is considered low due to the lack of success of its development strategy and policy. A new approach known as the cluster approach is being used to make strategy and policy in order to develop a stronger, and more competitive industry. This paper discusses the layout of the Indonesian construction cluster and its competitiveness. The archival analysis research approach was used to identify the construction cluster. The analysis was based on the input-output (I/O) tables of the years 1995 and 2000, which were published by the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics. The results suggest that the Indonesian construction cluster consists of the industries directly involved in construction as the core, with the other related and supporting industries as the balance. The anatomy of the Indonesian construction cluster permits structural changes to happen within it. These changes depend on policies that regulate the cluster’s constituents

Static load modelling and voltage stability indices

This paper analyzes the performance of some of the widely used voltage stability indices, namely, singular value, eigenvalue, and loading margin with different static load models. Well-known ZIP model is used to represent loads having components with different power to voltage sensitivities. Studies are carried out on a 10-bus power system and the New England 39-bus power system models. The effects of variation of load model on the performance of the voltage stability indices are discussed. The choice of voltage stability index in the context of load modelling is also suggested in this paper.

Competitiveness factors : a study of the real estate market in China

The execution of 'macro-adjustment' policies by the central government to cool down the overheated real estate market in the past few years has created an unfavourable operating environment for real estate developers in Mainland China. Developers need to rethink their business model and create a new form of competitive advantage in order to survive. Despite this, research into the factors that influence the competitiveness of the real estate market in China has been limited. Therefore, a survey of 58 real estate actitioners, experts and academics in China was conducted to probe opinion on the factors that influence competitiveness in real estate firms in China. Survey results suggest that the developer's financial competency, market coverage and management competencies are vital to its competitiveness. Findings also highlight the importance of industry ecognition/award, share in different types of property sales/development projects, profit after tax, growth rate of their securities price, and diversification of R&D in reflecting the competitiveness of real estate developers in China. The findings provide an insight into the factors that influence competitiveness in China's real estate market and also assist practitioners to formulate competitiveness improvement strategies.

Augmenting competitiveness of cities through tourism planning : the role of collaborative decision support systems

Many cities around the globe are now considering tourism facilities and their remarkable revenues in order to become competitive in the global economy. In many of these cities a great emphasis is given to the cultural tourism as it plays an important role in the establishment of creative and knowledge-base of cities. The literature points out the importance of local community support in cultural tourism. In such context, the use of new approach and technologies in tourism planning in order to increase the community participation and competitiveness of cities’ cultural assets gains a great significance. This paper advocates a new planning approach for tourism planning, particularly for cultural tourism, to increase the competitiveness of cities. As part of this new approach, the paper introduces the joined up planning approach integrated with a collaborative decision support system: ‘the community-oriented decision support system’. This collaborative planning support system is an effective and efficient tool for cultural tourism planning, which provides a platform for local communities’ participation in the development decision process.