An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services by different agents. In general, it is defined ‘as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the production, use, and management of scarce resources’. A given economy is a set of processes that involves its culture, values, education, technological evolution, history, social organization, political structure and legal systems, as well as its geography, natural resource endowment, and ecology, as main factors. These factors give context, content, and set the conditions and parameters in which an economy functions. In other words, the economic domain is a social domain of interrelated human practices and transactions that does not stand alone.
The study investigated the environment surrounding refugees’ access to humanitarian assistance which tends to suffocate the spirit of the Uganda Refugee Act of 2006 under Article 30 which allows freedom of movement for refugees in the country.
The study investigated the environment surrounding refugees’ access to humanitarian assistance which tends to suffocate the spirit of the Uganda Refugee Act of 2006 under Article 30 which allows freedom of movement for refugees in the country.
Economic reliance is more profound because numerous African nations have borrowed heavily to
finance infrastructure. Chinese “Angola Model” by which exports of raw materials is
compensated by loans financing investment in infrastructure…
This research empirically investigates the relationships among the four most common supply chain management practices (supplier partnership, customer relationship, information sharing, and lean system), net trade cycle, and financial performance. It consists of nine hypotheses concerning the relationships of the aforementioned factors that have been verified throughout reviewed literature and examined via employing the structural equation modelling technique. This research used data taken from floated questionnaires at three manufacturing companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain. An inclusive review of the literature to retrieve the four most common supply chain management practices has been undertaken and has identified limitations in the research techniques applied. This research has discovered the significant influences of the supplier partnership, the information sharing, and the lean system of the three most common supply chain management practices and the net trade cycle on the financial performance. Although this is the first research that combines the critical relationships among those four most common supply chain management practices, the net trade cycle, and the financial performance in one model, it is important to note that this study was unsuccessful in demonstrating whether there is a significant influence between customer relationship of the most common supply chain management practices and the net trade cycle on the financial performance. Researchers can employ the outcomes of this research to discover several related hypotheses in more details and increase the accuracy of forthcoming empirical relationships among those factors. This research offers particular suggestions for such further research. The outcomes of this research can be utilized by managers to highlight the execution of those four most common supply chain management practices and the net trade cycle in their respective ventures. Moreover, almost all of those relationships are found to have significant influences on the financial performance. Furthermore, the outcomes can be recommended to production managers who may well assign resources to enhance these practices to achieve the greatest outcomes.
This study examined the contribution of Export Processing Zones to the socio-economic development of Nigeria. The country adopted the EPZ strategy in 1992 with the establishment of Calabar Free Trade Zone to diversify the economy, accelerate industrialization, acquire modern technologies, create jobs, and attract FDIs. Since then 25 zones have been registered out of which 11 are operational, 9 under construction and 5 merely declared. In this study, the endogenous growth theory was adopted as the theoretical framework of analysis. It focuses on the institution of a knowledge-based human capital accumulation system and structures through learning by doing externalities, investment in research and development (R and D) activities that will generate new ideas enhance technological progress and improve quality of products via the zones. Four zones, (Calabar, Oil and Gas, Snake Island and ALSCON) were randomly selected. Two hundred and ninety (290) copies of questionnaires were administered on 290 respondents selected from 54 FZEs and 4 Zonal Management Boards. Out of this number 242 properly completed questionnaires served as the sample size for the data analysis. Primary and secondary data were used in the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage distribution. Views on the research assumptions were presented and discussed exhaustively. The study revealed that EPZs have not substantially contributed to Nigeria’s socio-economic development. This is because the zones have not significantly enhanced the industrialization process, economic diversification, technology transfer, employment generation, etc. It concluded that for the EPZs to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s socio-economic development they must accelerate the industrialization and diversification, increase export of manufactured goods, and create jobs. Some of the recommendations are that value addition should be made compulsory in the production processes; R and D must be made central to EPZ’s operations and that deliberate efforts must be made to increase the exports of manufactured goods and government should endeavour to stabilize the power situation at the zones.
L’économie burkinabè est à dominante agricole. En effet, les secteurs de l’agriculture et de l’élevage qui emploient 85 % de la population active fournissent à eux seuls 33% du Produit Intérieur Brut (PIB), et 80 % des recettes d’exportation (DGPER, 2011). Les terres à vocation agricoles ont estimées à quelque 9 millions ha, soit le tiers du territoire national. Environ 3,5 millions d’hectares (soit 39 % des terres à vocations agricoles) sont mis en culture annuellement. C’est avant tout une agriculture de subsistance basée sur les céréales vivrières (sorgho, mil, maïs, riz) qui occupent à elles seules plus de 80 % des surfaces emblavées annuellement. Le sorgho est la première céréale cultivée au Burkina Faso, tant en superficie (43 % des superficies totales) qu’en volume (40 %). La plante s’adapte bien, en effet, aux conditions agro-climatiques d’une grande partie du territoire du Burkina Faso, et demande peu d’intrants pour sa culture. À l’instar du mil, le sorgho est une céréale vivrière avant tout, qui est largement plantée en complément d’autres cultures et destinée à l’autoconsommation dans les ménages ruraux. Dans les centres urbains, elle est souvent remplacée par le riz comme principale céréale consommée.
The acronym VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) was coined in 1989, by the US Army War College – a school that depends on the US military – to denote the multilateral world more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, after the end of the cold war and the dangers of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 1990-1991. After the implementation of this concept and the evolution of its application, in different fields, as well as the development that has been added on its characteristics and principles, it is more and more used in companies and administrations. So, VUCA represents these four terms: (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), these traits have always been present in the world, but what has changed is the speed of change affecting all aspects of our life. As the world accelerates, it brings a whole new dimension to the VUCA world. There are no more stable moments now, and there has never been so much technological ability to predict the world, in instability, the only certainty is the change that it is made permanent.
Through facilitative efforts by AFTA, the Malaysian government has entered into trade agreements with other ASEAN member states. The current body of literature provides a general understanding of the effects of trade policies on developing nations, but it does not provide specifics, such as what those trade policies are or what the measurable consequences of those trade policies are in regard to a given industry or even a specific developing nation. The purpose of this study was to explore the measurable consequences of the AFTA trade liberalization policies on Malaysia’s automotive industry. A case study was conducted using the triangulation of empirical statistical data collected from secondary sources, an analysis of policy documents, and from qualitative interviews conducted with consumers, automotive industry workers, and experts in the automotive industry or in the realm of policy analysis and trade politics. The Malaysian government entered into trade agreements out of a desire to protect domestic industry, with a focus on protecting the automotive industry. While economic growth has been high for the past several decades, the automotive industry is still developing, and the country’s classification remains that of a developing nation. The two primary policies influencing the automotive industry in Malaysia are the National Automotive Policy (NAP) and the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT). A review of the results showed that consumers had the lowest level of awareness of policies influencing the automotive industry, even though they were in the stakeholder group most affected by the implementation of those policies. Synthesis of data from the analysed interviews indicated that the effects of Malaysia’s entry into AFTA on the automotive industry have been both deep and far-reaching, but that no one group is aware of all of the measurable consequences of those trade agreements, or that the trade agreements have resulted in positive changes for the country as a whole. The iv researcher identified several recommendations that, if implemented, may work to increase the beneficence of implemented policies. Through the completion of the study, the current national strategies for Malaysia were identified, the policies adopted by Malaysia were identified, and the measurable consequences of those policies within the automotive industry were discussed
This study aims to evaluate the extent to which banks in Zambia are benefiting from revenue diversification activities. Research design/methodology – The study used a quantitative research approach based on secondary data from 12 of the 18 banks in Zambia. Data analysis was buttressed by the use of several techniques such as the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure bank diversification, ZScore to measure bank income volatility/risk and risk adjusted returns on assets and equity to measure profitability. Findings – The study finds that, in Zambia, some banks do not enhance their profit performance by diversifying into non-interest activities. For other banks, diversification yields better profit performance in some years, but not always. The overall picture, however, is that diversification into non-interest income earning activities enhances the profit performance of banks. With respect to bank riskiness as measured by income volatility, the study finds that, in Zambia, some banks do not reduce their income volatility by diversifying into non-interest earning activities. For other banks, diversification reduces income volatility in some periods, but not others. The overall picture, however, is that the larger the bank is, the more non-interest income diversification reduces its income volatility. Limitations – Although the Central Bank provided financial data for all the 18 banks in the country, only data for 12 banks was usable. Data for six banks did not cover the whole ten-year study period and was unusable for the purposes of the study. This limited the actual sample size. Furthermore, to preserve confidentiality, the bank data provided was anonymised such that it was impossible to tell the geographical spread of the bank, the bank’s product or market strategy, or whether the bank was foreign or locally owned. This limited the scope of analysis. Recommendations – Given that in general bank profitability has declined as banks have become less diversified, the Bank of Zambia needs to closely monitor performance of banks and avoid imposing regulations that stifle bank innovation. And since diversification does not always result in enhanced bank performance, banks should consider the extent to which their business models support non-bank activities before making diversification decisions.
In this chapter, the author makes a discussion on the mutual impacts of foreign direct investments (FDIs) from the developed to the developing countries with a specific reference to Tanzania, his home country. He identifies several theoretical mutual FDI impacts between the FDI source countries (predominantly, developed ones) and FDI destinations, especially the developing ones. He then presents several pieces of evidence on the mutual FDI impacts in Tanzania. The impacts include increased government revenues (through tax, royalties, privatization proceedings, licences and fees); increased direct and indirect employment; increased community support projects; increased up-to date and state-of the art technology; improved investment climate; technology transfer; and more market access. Tanzania’s impacts on the FDIs locating in the country include accessibility to markets and resources; investment incentives; profits; royalties; dividends; and employment.