Browse by: "S"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
Private investment by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)1 is a key generator of economic growth and social change in OECD member country economies. In most countries, over 90% of all enterprises are SMEs. It is now widely accepted that the contribution of SMEs to new jobs, exports, innovation and regional development is vital to national development. How to benefit from and maximise this contribution is a continuous challenge for all countries. This Enterprise Policy Performance Assessment seeks to help address that question for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and highlights issues that require attention and priority action.
The S&T Statistical Compendium 2004 was prepared for the January 2004 meeting of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) at Ministerial level and mainly draws on databases, indicators and methodology developed by the CSTP’s Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI) Working Party, and compiled by the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (DSTI). It presents a wide selection of the most policy-relevant and internationally comparable indicators currently available in the field of science and technology.
The document looks at the state of science and technology in the OECD across four broad dimensions:
• Section A: Innovation and R&D.
• Section B: Human Resources in Science and Technology (HRST).
• Section C: Patents.
• Section D: Other areas (ICT, globalisation, industrial structure).
Private investment by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)1 is a key generator of economic growth and social change in OECD member country economies. In most countries, over 90% of all enterprises are SMEs. It is now widely accepted that the contribution of SMEs to new jobs, exports, innovation and regional development is vital to national development. How to benefit from and maximise this contribution is a continuous challenge for all countries. This Enterprise Policy Performance Assessment seeks to help address that question for Albania and highlights issues that require attention and priority action.
Private investment by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)1 is a key generator of economic growth and social change in OECD member country economies. In most countries, over 90% of all enterprises are SMEs. It is now widely accepted that the contribution of SMEs to new jobs, exports, innovation and regional development is vital to national development. How to benefit from and maximise this contribution is a continuous challenge for all countries. This Enterprise Policy Performance Assessment seeks to help address that question for the Republic of Macedonia and highlights issues that require attention and priority action.
Over the years, advances in space technologies have led to the development of increasingly sophisticated military and civil space assets.
Where is the space sector heading now? What are the obstacles to its further development? What are its future prospects? What are the applications that are likely to be successful in the future?
To answer these questions, this report adopted a scenario-based approach to explore the future evolution of major components of the space sector (military space, civil space, commercial space) over the next thirty years. It covers four major factors of change: geopolitical developments, socio-economic developments, energy and the environment, technology.
"Outstanding review, especially useful for the three sophisticated scenarios, useful to many futurists."
Future Survey, August 2004.
Particle accelerators are used today for an increasing range of scientific and technological applications. They are very powerful tools for investigating the origin and structure of matter, and for improving understanding of the interaction of radiation with materials, including the transmutation of nuclides and the beneficial or harmful effects of radiation. Particle accelerators are used to identify properties of molecules that can be used in pharmacy, for medical diagnosis and therapy, and for biophysics studies.
Particle accelerators must be operated in safe ways that protect the operators, the population and the environment. New technological and research applications give rise to new issues in radiation shielding. These workshop proceedings review the state of the art in radiation shielding of accelerator facilities and irradiated targets. They also evaluate advancements and discuss the additional developments required to meet radiation protection needs.
As modern nuclear power programmes mature and large, commercial nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities approach the end of their useful life by reason of age, economics or change of policy on the use of nuclear power, new challenges associated with decommissioning and dismantling come to the fore. Politicians and the public may expect there to be a “right answer” to the choice of strategy for a particular type of facility, or even all facilities. Both this seminar and wider experience show that this is not the case.
Local factors and national political positions have a significant input and often result in widely differing strategy approaches to broadly similar decommissioning projects. All facility owners represented at the seminar were able to demonstrate a rational process for strategy selection and compelling arguments for the choices made. In addition to the papers that were presented, these proceedings include a summary of the discussions that took place.
This book analyses the most recent developments in security of gas supply and reliability in all IEA regions. Reform has led to open markets, where supply and demand are balanced by the market.
In the gas sector, supply is capacity-bound and large parts of the demand side are inelastic. The study looks at how governments and other stakeholders in IEA countries respond to the need to create a framework that enables the players to deliver secure and reliable gas supply at the border and all the way down to the final customer.
Since 1998, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency has been organising a series of workshops to address the various aspects of stakeholder involvement in radiological protection decision making. These workshops have been instrumental in forging consensus and improving understanding of key issues in this area.
Building on the experience of the first two "Villigen workshops", the third in the series extensively analysed three case studies, which covered the licensing of a new facility, the clean-up and release of an old facility, and the rehabilitation of a large, contaminated area. Consideration was given to the stakeholder involvement processes that had been used, and the implications that that these did or could have on radiological protection policy, regulation and application. The workshop papers analysing these processes and implications are presented in these proceedings, which should provide valuable examples and lessons for governments, regulators and practitioners.
Most experts worldwide agree that radioactive waste disposal in engineered facilities, or repositories, located in appropriate formations deep underground, provide a suitable waste management option for protecting humans and the environment now and in the future. These conference proceedings establish the scientific basis for stability and buffering capacity of deep geological waste management systems. The proceedings synthesise the main outcomes of the workshop and present a compilation of the related abstracts.
Society at a Glance is OECD's biannual compendium of indicators showing the extent to which OECD countries are becoming more equal, more healthy, and more cohesive. Covering such topics as self-sufficiency (employment, working mothers, unemployment benefits, educational attainment), equity (poverty, income inequality, social spending), health (life expectancy, mortality, health care expenditure), and cohesion (social isolation, teenage births, drug use, suicides), this book provides a statistical snapshot of social wellbeing in OECD countries, and allows users to analyze interlinked social issues in the context of a more complete representation of a country's social characteristics.
By linking social status and social response indicators across a broad range of policy areas, Society at a Glance helps readers to identify whether and how the broad thrust of social policies and societal actions are addressing key policy issues. This book includes StatLinks to spreadsheets of underlying data on the internet.
This publication summarises the lessons learned from the 30 country reviews of sustainable development that have been published since 2002 as part of OECD Economic Surveys. It also examines the concrete action that countries have taken to promote sustainable development while concentrating on the results that have been achieved and the efficiency of achieving the results. The publication focuses on major policy areas including the improvement of environmental policies, raising living standards in developing countries, and ensuring sustainable retirement income policies. Numerous tables provide detailed data and sustainable development indicators that have been used to gauge performance and assess costs.
Based on the survey results of OECD's PISA 2000 programme, this report looks at: the extent to which the schools that students attend make a difference in performance; the relative impact of school climate, school policies and school resources on quality and equity; the relationship between the structure of education systems and educational quality and equity; and the effect of decentralisation and privatisation to school performance. It concludes with a summary of how school factors relate to quality and equity, and the implications for policy. The analysis and data cover almost all OECD countries and 14 additional non-OECD countries.
The report examines potential approaches for rapid uptake of telecommuting, "ecodriving”, and car-pooling, among other measures. It also provides methodologies and data that policy makers can use to decide which measures would be best adapted to their national circumstances. This “tool box” may help countries to complement other measures for coping with supply disruptions, such as use of strategic oil stocks.
These workshop proceedings review the state of the art in radiation shielding of accelerator facilities and of irradiated targets. They also evaluate progress made and discuss the additional developments required to meet radiation protection needs.
This book explores the contribution space systems might make in dealing with looming societal challenges related to threats to the physical environment and the management of natural resources, growing mobility and its consequences, increasing security concerns, and the shift to the information society. It discusses the challenges for developing space applications. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks that currently govern space activities in the OECD area and beyond. Finally, it formulates an overall policy framework that OECD governments might use in drafting policies designed to ensure that the potential that space has to offer is actually realised.
This publication continues efforts by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) to develop tools and instruments for conflict prevention and for improving security and stability in the long term. The guidance underlines the positive role that the integrated reform of a country’s security system can play in stabilising fragile, conflict-prone or conflict affected states. This includes not only the armed forces, police and gendarmerie, intelligence services and justice and penal systems, but also the civil authorities responsible for oversight and democratic control.
Part I contains a policy statement and paper endorsed in 2004 by development ministers and agency heads of the DAC and by the OECD council. It sets out the key concepts of security system reform (SSR) and suggests ways to support it in developing countries, taking into account regional dynamics. In Part II, a lead consultant examines the origins of the SSR agenda and the challenges that donors face in promoting it in partner countries. The Annex to the publication contains work by an expert working in each of the four regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South-east Europe, the Baltics and the CIS. It sets out their assessment of the changes that are taking place in the way that developing countries in these regions think about security and provides an account and analysis of individual reform activities currently being undertaken.