Browse by: "PRE-2015"

In the current era of globalisation, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are recognised as major players in innovation and job creation. Furthermore, entrepreneurship is no longer a male preserve: although few women can be found at the head of large companies, an increasing number are taking up the challenge of creating and managing their own businesses.

This conference proceedings explores the phenomenon of women entrepreneurs in small and medium entreprises, examining such issues as governmental support, networks, doing business overseas, starting businesses, and financing.

The IEA Wind Power Technology Roadmap 2013 Edition recognises the very significant progress made since the first edition was published in 2009. The technology continues to improve rapidly, and costs of generation from land-based wind installations continue to fall. Wind power is now being deployed in countries with good resources without any dedicated financial incentives.

The 2013 Edition targets an increased share (15% to 18%) of global electricity to be provided by wind power in 2050, compared to 12% in the original roadmap of 2009. However, increasing levels of low-cost wind still require predictable, supportive regulatory environments and appropriate market designs. The challenges of integrating higher levels of variable wind power into the grid need to be addressed. For offshore wind, much remains to be done to develop appropriate large-scale systems and to reduce costs.

The 2013 Wind Power Roadmap also provides updated analysis on the barriers that exist for the technology and suggests ways to address them, including legal and regulatory recommendations.

“Too much ‘red tape’!” is one of the most common complaints from businesses and citizens in OECD countries. Administrative simplification is a regulatory quality tool to review and reduce administrative and regulatory procedures. It has remained high on the agenda in most OECD countries over the last decade and continues to be so. Countries’ efforts to strengthen their competitiveness, productivity and entrepreneurship during the current recession have made simplification efforts even more urgent.  

Until now, efforts to reduce administrative burdens have primarily been driven by ambitions to improve the cost efficiency of administrative regulations, as these impose direct and indirect costs on regulated subjects. Many countries will finish their current projects over the next few years and must decide how to continue their efforts and how to make them more efficient.  

This report looks beyond 2010 and presents policy options for administrative simplification that are in line with current trends and developments. It provides policy makers with guidance on the available tools and explains common mistakes to be avoided when designing, undertaking and evaluating administrative simplification programmes.

There is broad political support for lifelong learning because it is so vital to sustained economic progress and social cohesion in the "new economy". But its implementation is potentially costly and depends on making the learning process more cost-effective and on securing financial and in-kind resources from the private sector.

What can be done to keep lifelong learning from becoming prohibitively expensive, and to ensure that there are strong and transparent incentives to invest in it ? This book looks at recent experience of selected OECD countries as they have articulated their goals and strategies for lifelong learning. It examines policies and practices that influence the rates of return to lifelong learning, and mechanisms that are being put in place to channel financial resources to lifelong learning. It identifies resource issues that need to be addressed if lifelong learning is to be an affordable and workable guide to public policy.

What will schools look like in the future? What big trends are most influential in shaping education and how might these unfold in coming years? What policy questions need to be tackled today to open up desirable pathways into the future?

These ambitious questions are addressed in What Schools for the Future?, a publication produced by the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI). Drawing on an extensive international body of statistical and research evidence, the book analyses the social, economic, and educational trends of the 21st century. It also presents six possible scenarios for school systems over the next 10-20 years. The analysis is completed by contributions from eight international experts, looking with different perspectives at the challenges facing schools today and tomorrow.

Facing the collapse of their business and stiff competition from road transport, Eastern European railways are in a critical financial situation. Railway restructuring is a must, but where circumstances in each country are so different there can be no “one size fits all” solution. Nevertheless, some guidelines for restructuring are emerging. The strategies to be implemented will involve both governments and the railway companies themselves.

Separating infrastructure from operations, for instance, could be a good model provided infrastructure usage is priced efficiently. Concessions should be granted for local and regional passenger services. Freight transport issues have to be addressed at a European level - and open access should be the fundamental rule along with encouraging new market entrants.

Privatising the railways is probably not a prerequisite; their independence, however, is essential. Their management should be exactly the same as that of any other commercial company on the market and they should have appropriate management tools. Railways should focus their investment on new technologies and automation, difficult problems with reducing overstaffing can be resolved only with government co-operation.

Based on a review of the strengths and weaknesses of the railways in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States, this Round Table comes to a series of inescapable conclusions for anyone wishing to address these issues.

Despite the fact that the freight transport market in Europe almost doubled in volume over the period 1970 to 1995, growth in the inland waterway sector has remained stagnant. Until now the waterways have primarily been used to transport goods produced by sectors that have been hard hit by industrial restructuring. However, the past does not necessarily hold the key to the future. Waterways can be readily incorporated into logistics chains in which regular supply streams and low transport costs are more important than speed. The transportation of hazardous materials and container transport also offer promising markets.

The Round Table identified a number of policy measures which could help to promote development in the inland waterways sector (discontinuation of scrapping policies, support for the grouping of enterprises and the creation of co-operatives, incentives for private-sector investment). Reading the proceedings of this Round Table offers an opportunity to look at the inland waterways in a wholly new light which shows that there is a genuine future for this mode provided that operators are prepared to become entrepreneurs.

This report sets out the challenge for freshwater in a changing climate and provides policy guidance on how to navigate this new “waterscape”. It highlights the range of expected changes in the water cycle and the challenge of making practical, on-site adaptation decisions for water. It offers policymakers a risk-based approach to better “know”, “target” and “manage” water risks and proposes policy guidelines to prioritise action and improve the efficiency, timeliness and equity of adaptation responses.

The report also highlights general trends and good practices drawn from the OECD Survey of Policies on Water and Climate Change Adaptation, covering all 34 member countries and the European Commission. Individual country profiles are available, which provide a snapshot of the challenges posed by climate change for freshwater and the emerging policy responses (on-line only).

Finally, the report highlights the benefits of well-designed economic instruments (e.g. insurance schemes, water trading, water pricing), ecosystem-based approaches and ‘real options’ approaches to financing. These approaches can improve the flexibility of water policy and investment, reducing the cost of adjusting to changing conditions.