Academic literature on the topic 'System of management of foreign economic policy'

AbstractThis introductory chapter examines the question whether Russia’s increased role in the international agri-food system is sustainable. Russia’s role in the international food trade system has changed from being a food importer to an importer and exporter. The first section discusses several factors that impact food imports: food production; knowledge-based innovation; politicalisation of food trade policy; and population and consumption. The second part examines factors that affect food exports: agri-food export policy; climate change; foreign competition; infrastructure; and regional foreign demand. The final section provides an outlook for the future, concluding that Russia will remain a food importer although the structure of imported commodities and trading partners will continue to evolve. Absent a major climatological disaster or significant economic downturn, we express cautious optimism that Russia will continue as a major food exporter.

After war conflicts or crisis situations, the recovery of territorial communities becomes the most important task for ensuring stability and development. However, effective recovery requires not only material but also informational and communication efforts aimed at forming a positive image and attracting investment. Ukraine has suffered significant damage as a result of the full-scale military aggression, so there is a great need for the implementation of public administration mechanisms to attract investment for the reconstruction of territories. Problem statement: the problem is that the lack of a systematic approach to using public marketing mechanisms in the system of post-war socio-economic recovery of territorial communities will hinder the achievement of effective results. Research aim: the aim of this research is to analyze and systematize public marketing mechanisms in the context of the recovery of territorial communities after the war, in order to determine their role and importance in shaping a positive image and attracting the necessary resources. Research object and subject: the object of the research is the system of post-war socio-economic recovery of territorial communities, and the subject is the public marketing mechanisms used to achieve this goal. Research methods: the research is based on the analysis of domestic and foreign research in the field of public marketing, as well as on the author's own experience of participation in scientific conferences and publications on this topic. Analytical methods, study of practical cases of application of marketing strategies in the context of the recovery of territorial communities, statistical methods and correlation analysis were used. Research results: an analysis of the world experience of post-war reconstruction was carried out and the differences between the situation in Ukraine and similar processes in Europe were determined. The advantages and disadvantages of economic system management models were investigated and a grouping of KPI factors was carried out. Conclusions and recommendations: public marketing mechanisms are an important tool in the system of post-war recovery of territorial communities. It is recommended to implement individual marketing strategies, taking into account the specifics of each community, in order to ensure stable and effective development.

Development of financial management in each country occurs in a unique way It is due to historical traditions, administrative structure, internal and foreign policy of the state (aimed to improving the socio-economic situation in the country), the needs of various economic structures and organizations of the public administration system, including those aimed to centralizing (decentralizing) the management of financial flows of the country. In the paper, relevance of the research topic is due to strengthening the role of financial management under conditions of digitalization of the economy and searching the ways to improve the effectiveness of financial management in Russia including on the basis of domestic experience and the experience of developed foreign countries.

The use, protection and management of water resources belong to the most urgent among global environmental problems of our time. Today, the civilization clearly realizes the need for careful management of water resources, maintaining and restoring its quality. Water quality determines the possibility of its use in various fields of human activity. For Ukraine problems of water sector are also acute and urgent. Low efficiency of water use, poor drinking water quality, nitrate contamination of water resources, poor condition of water bodies in Ukraine require more foreign experience in this sphere, especially the EU experience. The purpose of our scholarly work is to explore actual problems of harmonization of water legislation of Ukraine with the requirements of EU water policy and development of proposals for the improvement of Ukrainian legislation. Main features of harmonization of Ukrainian legislation in the water resources management sphere with EU law and prospects for implementation of principles of EU Water Framework Directive were analyzed. As a result of the study the ways of implementation of positive foreign experience of water objects management in Ukraine are considered. Considering the scale of ecological crisis in Ukraine the necessity of forming a new system of economic regulators of nature is obvious. Such system must not only accumulate funds for urgent actions, but primarily encourage economic entities to protect the natural environment. We consider it appropriate to introduce mandatory environmental insurance for operators of environmentally hazardous activities.

This paper examines the effectiveness of European economic sanctions against Russia from 2022 to 2023, with a focus on the impact of these measures on the Russian oil & gas sector. Prior to the implementation of large-scale sanctions, the European Union was Russia's principal trading partner. Against this backdrop, this study assesses the impact of European restrictions on Russia. Utilizing the event analysis method, renowned for its reliability in assessing the effects of anti-Iranian sanctions and previous sanctions against Russia during 2014-2021, this research analyzes data from the oil & gas sector of the Russian stock market on the Moscow Exchange. Despite significant attention to oil exports from the sanctions imposers, findings indicate a minimal impact on the oil and gas sector. The study aims to shed light on the economic ramifications of these recent sanctions and seeks to contribute to the broader discourse on the efficacy of economic sanctions as a tool of foreign policy.

The problems of tourism development and planning, as well as the concept of regional policy in this area have a long tradition both in foreign and domestic studies. However, the course of history and the development of society steadily actualize this direction of society economy and mode of life as a subject and object of regional research. The relevance of tourism as a vector of regional development in our country requires a revision of its development targets and forms of regulation in the national space. The article deals with the issues of tourism development strategic goal-setting and planning at any level of management, the problem of spatial priorities in tourism development.

The model of the welfare state ensures citizens’ social protection and addresses social injustices resulting from the workings of a free or un­regulated market. In Croatia, few legal researchers investigate the principles of the welfare state, justice, and social rights. This paper aims to analyze the role of social rights in Croatia’s legal system and their reflection on Croatian legal literature. The authors agree that economic interests jeopardize the need for social justice, a fundamental state interest recognized at the high­est level of Croatian constitutional values. They emphasize the significance of tax policy in achieving the state’s social goals and warn against frequent legislative changes in the taxation system, which undermine social justice. The legal content of welfare state principles, justice, and taxation is linked to the international flow of capital and the influence of multinational corpora­tions. The authors stress the importance of learning from foreign constitu­tional law experiences to strengthen the judiciary’s role in protecting social constitutional guarantees.

Country risk analysis has become extremely important in contem­porary conditions. This paper briefly discusses concepts, definitions, basic components, and some quantitative methods used to address various issues related to country risk in selected CEFTA countries. The paper also presents the indicative calculation of some of the elements and indicators for the selected countries, based on relevant available data, and in order to make a comparative analysis. Having in mind that country risk is a specific and complex macroeconomic risk, its determination and analysis is additionally complicated in terms of contemporary global changes. In fact, that is a risk of a country as a whole, its macroeconomic policy and economic balance or unbalance, political stability or instability of a country, political disturbances and democratic processes, political system and legal system, etc. Therefore, country risk involves several kinds of risks, such as political risk, economic risk, foreign payments risk, financial transfers risk, etc. Globally, all those risks can be divided in three biggest groups: risks of macroeconomic unbalance of the country; risks of the political instability of the country; and risks of the system of the country (system risks). Due to its complexity, the paper will elaborate and quantify some of the basic indicators related to country risk, mostly re­lated to trade exchange between selected countries in the CEFTA agreement. The procedures and methods of country risk analysis and measurement have similarities with those used for individual economic entities, but techniques for the country risk analysis are less developed and there was no generally accepted analysis method. The final assessment may be a combination of many external and internal models that are not mutually exclusive, and in that process can be analyzed a number of different factors that determine country risk. Among the factors that condition the country risk and that are necessary to be included in the analyses can be: country’s foreign-financial position; external debt; debt management; assessment of the natural re­sources; the degree of technique and technology development, industrializa­tion and automation of production, and so on. The paper will stress as most important indicators in assessing country risk: The Debt Service Ratio, Import ratio, Investment Ratio, Domestic Money Supply Growth, etc., which will be calculated using selected macro-economic data such as: GDP, GDP per capi­ta, Real GDP grow, Inflation (CPI), Fiscal balance (% of GDP), Current account balance (% of GDP), Public debt/GDP (%), External debt/Exports of goods & services (%), Debt-service ratio (%), Foreign exchange reserves, Foreign direct investments (% of GDP), Exchange rate etc. The methodology of collecting and processing information and the degree of reliability of collected data greatly depends on the promptness and accuracy of the national institutions that present those data. The goal of the paper is: to point out the importance of country risk assess­ment, to determine and compute the basic indicators of country risk in some of the Southeastern Europe countries, to determine conditions and trends of country risk in selected countries, and to suggest some strategies for its re­duction in conditions of the unstable environment and crisis disturbances.

The global crisis in recent years has resulted in an inconsistent economic policy of EU member states that ranged from the policy of proclaimed liberalism to the policy of ad hoc interventionism. It is the result of a mismatch between the capacity of the nation state and its existing obligations towards its citizens. Doctrinal analyses state that, therefore, states are trying to fulfil their expected function by implementing insolvency regulations aimed at rescuing infrastructure "losers" from liquidation bankruptcy while retaining those entities that are the backbone of national development policy. In this regard, this paper intends to analyse the model of Extraordinary Management Procedure defined by the Law on the Executive Administration Procedure in Companies of Systemic Importance for the Republic of Croatia. Due to the controversy that exists on the doctrinal plan related to the implementation as well as the application of the aforementioned regulations, a lot of questions have been opened, and there is no clear answer. However, it seems useful to try to detect some problems of positive regulation and offer possible solutions to the protection of creditors and debtors during the following systemic crises. For comparison and possible suggestions de lege ferenda for the Serbian legislator, these experiences are potentially important because a reform of the regulations (and even insolvency regulation) is underway, primarily by the process of harmonization of Serbian regulations with EU regulations. The complexity of the subject of research and the set tasks were conditioned by the choice of methods, so the methodology used in the research included the study of domestic and foreign literature, relevant legislation, as well as the analysis of domestic and foreign court practices. We certainly consider it important to point out that the space that we have here does not allow us for a detailed breakdown of this issue, so we are forced to limit ourselves, in the author's opinion, to some aspects of the new bankruptcy regulations.

This paper studies from an empirical and theoretical perspective the systemic and bank-level effects of imposing reserve requirements (RR) in foreign currency in an economy with a heavily dollarized financial system. The paper empirically characterizes banks responses to the RR carried out by the Peruvian Central Bank since 2008 with the objective of stabilizing the financial market and meeting its policy targets. The results suggest that the RR is effective in reducing the overall level of credit in the economy and that banks response in terms of credit and deposits is very heterogeneous depending on their ex ante preference for foreign funding ratio, i.e., the ratio of deposits in dollars to total loans. Motivated by the empirical insights, the paper builds a DSGE small-open-economy model with financial frictions à la Gertler-Karadi-Kiyotaki, where bank heterogeneity and financial dollarization are introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of the differential RR in reducing financial dollarization and improving financial resilience.

The article reveals the features of the state mechanism for regulating labor migration in the Jewish Autonomous Region. It is noted that labor migration is an integral part of the economic development of the region. The purpose of the study is the peculiarities of solving the problems of optimizing the mechanisms for regulating labor migration in the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAO). The practical significance of the study is underscored by the growing resource requirements of the Jewish Autonomous Region. The importance of attracting labor migrants from the widest list of countries, to increase the exchange of experience and improve interethnic relations, the organization of programs to increase the flow of willing workers and promising employers, is highlighted. The scientific novelty of the research is in the designation of the latest methods and state programs aimed at improving the efficiency of the labor migration management mechanism. Every year, the number of migrants illegally staying on the territory of Russia is growing, and the authorities of the Russian Federation are trying to improve the methods of control of foreign citizens entering the country, which makes it easier, but at the same time more effective, to exercise control over migrants and distribute it in. areas such as the patent system, employee-to-employer linkage and simplified taxation.

This report describes the effects of climate change for Finland from the view of comprehensive security. The report examines both direct and indirect climate security risks as well as transition risks related to climate change mitigation. The report is based on previous research and expert interviews. Direct security risks refer to the immediate risks caused by the changing nature of natural hazards. These include the risks to critical infrastructure and energy systems, the logistics system, health and food security. Indirect security risks relate to the potential economic, political and geopolitical impacts of climate change. Climate change can affect global migration, increase conflict risk, and cause social tensions and inequality. Transition risks are related to economic and technological changes in energy transition, as well as political and geopolitical tensions and social problems caused by climate change mitigation policies. Reducing the use of fossil fuels can result in domestic and foreign policy tensions and economic pressure especially in locations dependent on fossil fuels. Political tension can also increase the risks associated with hybrid and information warfare. The security effects of climate change affect all sectors of society and the Finnish comprehensive security model should be utilized in preparing for them. In the short run, the most substantial arising climate change related security risks in Finland are likely to occur through indirect or transition risks. Finland, similar to other wealthy countries, has better technological, economic and institutional conditions to deal with the problems and risks posed by climate change than many other countries. However, this requires political will and focus on risk reduction and management.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3

In a globalised world, the effects of climate change are likely to cascade across borders. Climate impacts in one location may have far reaching consequences in other places by affecting trade, migration, investments, and foreign policy objectives. Whether such cascading effects are likely to materialise depends in turn on a number of social, economic, and political factors that reinforce or attenuate the effects of climate change on economic development, migration, political stability, etc. These moderating conditions are crucial when considering possible challenges in connection with climate change, and opportunities for addressing them. In this report, we discuss the possible effects of climate change on issues at the core of European foreign, security, and development policy – namely, the impacts of climate change on livelihoods, food security, migration, and political stability in regions with close ties to Europe, where those impacts may affect European foreign policy objectives in a significant way. Across regions, we identify a number of challenges and opportunities in different scenarios, which assume either more or less favourable moderating conditions (i.e., with regard to technology and physical infrastructure; resource and conflict management; economic opportunities; trade and access to markets; governance and state-citizen relations; and social and diplomatic relations). Despite important challenges and mounting climatic pressures in all considered regions, our results leave some room for optimism. Depending on their ability to build strong and inclusive institutions, promote sustainable development, and strengthen social and diplomatic ties, affected countries and their partners might be able to reduce the risk of adverse cascading effects in connection with a warming world. Climate change will become increasingly challenging in the coming years, yet its effects are ultimately determined by social, economic, and political factors. Studying what makes societies susceptible to be adversely affected by climate change and how such conditions evolve over time then gives an indication of where to direct adaptation efforts. The moderating conditions presented in this report offer as many “levers” for preparing against the adverse effects of climate change.

The EU must capitalise on its unique strengths in a highly competitive global arena. Its comparative advantages lie in areas where it has ample experience, know-how, legal competence, and institutional capacity. This policy brief offers recommendations to harness these strengths in conflict prevention, mediation and resolution. By doing so, the EU will be able to act more proactively, assertively and effectively on the international stage. 1. Leverage the expertise of EU agencies for external action The European Commission and the EEAS should further involve EU agencies - particularly those with traditionally internal mandates like the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) - in shaping the EU’s foreign policy. This integration would ensure that domestic achievements and know-how inform and enhance the EU’s external role in conflict management. 2. Empower and expand the corps of EU Special Representatives The Council and the EEAS should bolster the EU’s diplomatic front by relying to a greater extent on EU’s Special Representatives (EUSRs) for thematic areas, countries and regions, and particular crises. This would be both cost-effective and strategic. It would heighten EU presence and influence in key crisis zones and policy areas, such as human rights advocacy. Enhanced visibility and streamlined coordination between EUSRs - and special envoys - would reaffirm the EU’s commitment to tackling regional and global challenges head-on. 3. Intensify support for civil society engagement The European Commission, in collaboration with the EEAS and EU delegations, needs to prop up national and local civil society organisations as part of its conflict management activities. By providing these groups with the necessary tools and support, the EU would help them effectively address the multifaceted aspects of conflict management. The comprehensive participation of civil society would advance the EU’s objectives in gender mainstreaming, economic development and environmental protection. Moreover, it would accommodate EU policies to the realities of those they impact the most. It is imperative for EU actions to be shaped by and for the communities they serve, ensuring relevance, sustainability, and mutual respect in peacebuilding efforts.

As the globalization of the world economy proceeds apace, Colombia must cope with an increasingly competitive international economic environment. The need to compete for highly mobile international capital is an essential component of the fiscal landscape in all countries in today's global economy, especially those which, like Colombia, depend on foreign direct investment (FDI). This paper focuses on the effects of the tax system in Colombia on FDI. However, tax policy is far from the only factor affecting the foreign direct investment decisions of multinational corporations. Accordingly, before proceeding to a detailed analysis of tax structure and FDI, several of these alternative factors will be discussed.

The Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas will hold the 7th International Conference on Modeling, Development and Strategic Management of Economic System (MDSMES 2019: http://mdsmes.nung.edu.ua/), which will take place on October 24-25, 2019 in Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas, Ivano-Frankivsk and Polyanytsia village (TC Bukovel), Ukraine. The purpose of the Conference is to exchange the experience and share the results of the scientific research, generalization and development of policy recommendations based on the strategic management of economic systems as well as development partnerships for the future collaboration. This conference provides opportunities for the different areas delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration. We hope that the conference results constituted a significant contribution to the knowledge in these up-to-date scientific fields. We invite scientists, practitioners, teachers of educational institutions, doctoral students and graduate students to participate in the conference. The Organizing committee would like to express our sincere appreciation to everybody who has contributed to the conference. Heartfelt thanks are due to authors, reviewers, participants and to all the team of organizers for their support and enthusiasm which granted success to the conference. Hopefully, all participants and other interested readers benefit scientifically from the proceedings. We look forward to seeing you in the MDSMES 2019. We hope that this conference will be an annual event so we look forward to seeing you at MDSMES 2020. The Organizing Committee of MDSMES 2019

The central issue of the II Meeting of the Environment Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue, held on February 25 and 26, 2003, is "the application of economic instruments in water and solid waste management" . This Meeting has, on the water side, been informed by descriptions and analyses of a variety of approaches, including examples from a number of European countries (Kraemer, et al.), a longer study of the French water management system (Feres, et al.), and two Latin American country case studies, Brazil (Seroa da Motta and Feres) and Mexico (Saade Hazin and Saade Hazin). Each study provides a wealth of detail, set against a background of instrument typologies and commentary on instruments based on the extensive economic literature examining their advantages and disadvantages.

Germany is a parliamentary democracy (The Federal Government, 2021) with two politically independent levels of 1) Federal (Bund) and 2) State (Länder or Bundesländer), and has a highly differentiated decentralized system of Government and administration (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, 2021). The 16 states in Germany have their own government and legislations which means the federal authority has the responsibility of formulating policy, and the states are responsible for implementation (Franzke, 2020). The Federal Government supports the states in dealing with extraordinary danger and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) supports the states' operations with technology, expertise and other services (Federal Ministry of Interior, Building and Community, 2020). Due to the decentralized system of government, the Federal Government does not have the power to impose pandemic emergency measures. In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to slowdown the spread of coronavirus, on 16 March 2020 the federal and state governments attempted to harmonize joint guidelines, however one month later State governments started to act more independently (Franzke & Kuhlmann, 2021). In Germany, health insurance is compulsory and more than 11% of Germany’s GDP goes into healthcare spending (Federal Statistical Office, 2021). Health related policy at the federal level is the primary responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Health. This ministry supervises institutions dealing with higher level of public health including the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute (PEI), the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Centre for Health Education (Federal Ministry of Health, 2020). The first German National Pandemic Plan (NPP), published in 2005, comprises two parts. Part one, updated in 2017, provides a framework for the pandemic plans of the states and the implementation plans of the municipalities, and part two, updated in 2016, is the scientific part of the National Pandemic Plan (Robert Koch Institut, 2017). The joint Federal-State working group on pandemic planning was established in 2005. A pandemic plan for German citizens abroad was published by the German Foreign Office on its website in 2005 (Robert Koch Institut, 2017). In 2007, the federal and state Governments, under the joint leadership of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Health, simulated influenza pandemic exercise called LÜKEX 07, and trained cross-states and cross-department crisis management (Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk, 2007b). In 2017, within the context of the G20, Germany ran a health emergency simulation exercise with representatives from WHO and the World Bank to prepare for future pandemic events (Federal Ministry of Health et al., 2017). By the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, on 27 February 2020, a joint crisis team of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) was established (Die Bundesregierung, 2020a). On 4 March 2020 RKI published a Supplement to the National Pandemic Plan for COVID-19 (Robert Koch Institut, 2020d), and on 28 March 2020, a law for the protection of the population in an epidemic situation of national scope (Infektionsschutzgesetz) came into force (Bundesgesundheitsministerium, 2020b). In the first early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Germany managed to slow down the speed of the outbreak but was less successful in dealing with the second phase. Coronavirus-related information and measures were communicated through various platforms including TV, radio, press conferences, federal and state government official homepages, social media and applications. In mid-March 2020, the federal and state governments implemented extensive measures nationwide for pandemic containment. Step by step, social distancing and shutdowns were enforced by all Federal States, involving closing schools, day-cares and kindergartens, pubs, restaurants, shops, prayer services, borders, and imposing a curfew. To support those affected financially by the pandemic, the German Government provided large economic packages (Bundesministerium der Finanzen, 2020). These measures have adopted to the COVID-19 situation and changed over the pandemic. On 22 April 2020, the clinical trial of the corona vaccine was approved by Paul Ehrlich Institute, and in late December 2020, the distribution of vaccination in Germany and all other EU countries