TheMarketForIdeas

People’s Republic of Competitive Cooperation
Present China’s Silky Ties

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Octavian-Dragomir Jora  Dumitru Miron

China has a special geometry and geography of time, and whenever you touch its lands and breathe its epochs, you understand that the sizes and units of measure are different. When travelling to China, a foreigner cannot ignore the time-space continuum in which reigns the cosmopolitan-and-comradely cohabitation of apartment skyscrapers, sometime taller than their corporate cousins, pictures of hard-core communist planner Mao featuring on banknotes circulating in a market economy, workers and peasants equipped with much more than blunt sickles and hammers, apparatchiks and free spirits, mundane youngsters and flying shaolin monks. “To understand China’s last hundred years, see Shanghai. To understand China’s last thousand years, see Beijing. And to understand China’s last three thousand years, see Henan Province”, here is a good piece of advice for those who want to take the perfect tour of China. More

Cultural Goods and Cultural Welfare Some Praxeological and Proprietarian Notes

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Octavian-Dragomir Jora

The core intellectual conundrum that fuels the present essay is the following: is culture a product made in “free markets” or a “public good” to be provided by the state – allegedly the only societal institution able to grant individuals the collective means for bundling cultural values, for breeding cultural capital, and for maintaining sustainable cultural behaviour? The answers diverge culturally: from laissez-faire French harmonists to Marxist or Maoist communists, from cosmopolitan libertarians to nationalist autarkists, from old-school conservatives to politically-correct progressives, from Maecenas-entrepreneurs to sacrosanct bureaucrats, from freelance, self-contained artists to publicly-subsidized, politically-connected spoiled artificers. More

Starting Up on the Island of Love

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Vlad I. Roșca

Victor Kislyi would for sure have been delighted with current market conditions in Cyprus, but even so, the strong-minded, iron-forged Belorussian young entrepreneur was never short of success. In August 1998 he deployed his units in Nicosia, joined them with home-based brainiacs from Minsk and started a quest to conquer the world with turn-based and real-time strategy warship games. Crown of the jewelry: the 2010 launched World of Tanks. A five-man startup in 1998, Wargaming turned into a four thousand plus employee business with over six million euros in net income. Reason enough for Cypriot authorities to reconsider their stance upon doing international business on the island of love. More

Hyperconnected: Internet of Things, Big Data and the Future of CRM

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Nicoleta Lazăr

The way in which devices that we are using on a daily basis are designed with all kind of sensors and connected between themselves and the internet, this is the Internet of Things (IoT). Smartphones, smart TVs, and even having a smart home is pushing us into the future. We are facing a revolution, every app we use, every online search, everything that we are doing that is connected in one way or another to the online environment is building up the IoT, feeding it with information which can, and has already started to be used to predict, improve and innovate. More

Coaching the Business Game

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Alexandru Rîpa

There is a set of conventional attitudes and customs that employees from business environment try to focus on in daily work in order to achieve results. Either they are members of top management or entry-level positions, business comrades are guiding themselves (more or less) by the following principles. More

Research Center in International Business and Economics (CCREI) Internationalization ^Squared

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Rodica-Milena Zaharia

Research Center in International Business and Economics (CCREI) is an academic entity where the complex processes and phenomena specific to internal and global economic and socio - political landscape are analyzed and interpreted in a professional way. CCREI functions under the umbrella of the Department of International Business and Economics, Faculty of International Business and Economics, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. More

Cultural Diversity: Same Question, but a Different Answer. The Story of Azerbaijani Multiculturalism

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Raluca Șancariuc

We live in a world where people are sacrificed for being a minority. They are sacrificed for being different, although the very notion of ‘different’ is a purely subjective one. More than 70 years ago, anti-Semitism culminated with the killing of millions in Europe. Yet nowadays, the US president announces his intention to build a wall at the Mexican border. On the Asian continent, the armed forced of Myanmar are supposedly seeking the repression of the country’s Muslim minority. Africa is plagued by numerous conflicts, most of them stemming from ethnic and religious reasons, such as the rampages of the group previously known as Boko Haram in Nigeria. And Europe is facing a rise of nationalism and anti-immigrant attitudes, displayed through episodes such as Brexit or the popularity of the far-right in the French presidential elections. While the scope and the approach changed, and its roots also vary, the general attitude of rejection towards those who share a different culture, ethnicity, or religion still persists.   More

The Risks of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Construction of the Eurasian Economic Corridor

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Liu Zuokui

The EU/European market has always been fundamental to the development of economy and trade of China. The EU is the No. 1 trading partner of China. With regards to GDP, the EU is the largest economy in the world with the US and China ranking as the second and third largest economies respectively. Needless to say, the cooperation between the EU and China is of great significance to the economic development of China. For this reason, China has committed to pushing forward the construction of the Eurasian Economic Corridor, so as to facilitate the bilateral trade between the two sides. More

Cooperation Rationale for China and the CEE Countries

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Sun Jingying

When the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) was first introduced to the world, it was both hailed and doubted. One common misunderstanding regarding the BRI is whether it can transcend individual infrastructure construction and realize true regional economic integration, which would surely help China manage its overcapacity problem and its structural economic transition. However, we should go further and ask another question – what are the infrastructures for? More

The New Silk Road: Hope in Times of Imminent Danger

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Klaus Fimmen

Dark storm clouds are gathering on the horizon. The financial crisis is back, new tensions between the USA and Russia lie ahead – with heavy implications for Europe – as result of sanctions just established by the American Congress, not the President. On the other hand, we have an inkling of a new and more just world order in the making by China’s New Silk Road Initiative, formerly known as the One Belt, One Road and commonly named the Belt and Road Initiative. If mankind is to survive, we have to bury the old paradigm of geopolitics, that brought us two World Wars and threatens us today with the deadly prospect of a final one – the thermonuclear annihilation of civilization.  More

The Other Side of the (Chinese) Wall

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Florin Bonciu

For someone who has been born in the Western world it is quite a challenge to accept or at least to imagine that world is much more diverse, old and complex than the European civilization. Even today, in the age of globalization and Internet, very few Europeans know that Europe represents just about 17% of the world gross product and only a tiny 7% of the world population. More

Comments on the New Chinese Initiatives and Their Potential Impact on the Sino-Romanian Relations

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Iulia Monica Oehler-Șincai

Since 2012, the new Chinese administration has begun to model the Chinese “going-out strategy” under the characteristics of self-assurance, confidence, leadership and global networking. Initially, the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), announced in autumn 2013 by President Xi Jinping, might have appeared as utopian in the intention of reactivating and extending the Silk Road by land and sea beyond Asia-Pacific, towards Europe, Africa and America. The long-term vision of the BRI is underscored by its first implementation phase, which should be finished until 2049, the year of the 100^th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. More

Romania and China – Friends with No Benefits

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Valentina Crivăț

When it comes to the relations between Romania and China both parties refer to each other as being “old friends”, invoking a “traditional friendship” that ties the two nations separated by more than 8,000 km. Although Romania was one of the earliest countries to recognize the People’s Republic of China and the relations were close during the 1970s and the 1980s, with China being one of Romania’s strategic trading partners, the 1990s have been a period of mutual disengagement not only concerning Romania, but all the Central and Eastern European countries (hereafter referred as CEEC). Closer ties were reestablished starting with 1998 as China consolidated its position as an important player in the global economy, marking its new phase of development by entering the World Trade Organization in 2001, The CEEC were also in a process of reorientation, gaining security guarantees and new economic perspectives through their piecemeal European and Trans-Atlantic integration. More

What Is the Real Cooperation Between China and the Countries of Southeastern Europe How may export to the Chinese market be increased?

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Djuradj Grubisic

We have been listening to more and more stories of the New Silk Road (the Belt and Road Initiatives), both in the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe that are approached by this Chinese initiative, as well as in the countries of Western Europe and the United States, which view it with great suspicion.  More

The Framework of China’s Cooperation with Central-Eastern Europe: A View from the Baltics

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Vlad Vernygora

This small material represents an interpretation-based commentary on a particular issue – how a strategically important region for a global actor could clearly determine its role within a sophisticated framework related to a geo-strategic initiative of another global actor. Our discussion revolves around the Baltic States, the EU, China, its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and, a direct extension of the latter, the Chinese state’s rapidly developing interconnectedness with a patchy region of sixteen Central and Eastern European countries (the 16+1 Initiative).  More

The Usefulness of the Danube Strategy for the 16+1 Mechanism and the Belt and Road Initiative

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Edita Stojić Karanović

On the initiative of the People’s Republic of China aimed at intensifying and expanding cooperation with 11 EU member and 5 non-EU member states all in Eastern and South-East Europe the so-called “16+1” mechanism for cooperation was established. It embraces several fields, from investments, transport and finance, to science, education and culture. In the framework of the initiative, China has defined three potential priority areas for economic cooperation: infrastructure, high technologies and green technologies. For ensuring continuous development of the cooperation, a platform of regular meetings was established in 2012. At these meetings, the Chinese Prime Minister meets once a year with the leaders of the 16 countries. Upon the “16+1” mechanism the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) of China got a strong support for realization in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. More

China's Space Programme – Born Out of National Needs, Poised to Support Global Progress

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Jacqueline Myrrhe  William Carey

The 21st century is believed to become the Asian century. In the last few years, China has introduced several economic and political initiatives which promote its rise as a global power. Embedded in its development and rise is the national space programme. Western observers tend to look at China's space programme as being small, slow, technologically less advanced and not significant enough. Is this a correct view of the current reality? Is China's space programme able to support not only national advancement in science and technology but also support global progress? Which role does the New Silk Road project play in this process? Is it possible to predict China’s near-term future in space? The authors, through consulting open source information and performing in-depth analyses, look to find qualified answers to these questions.  More

The Drunkenness of Words and the Drunkenness of Reason Preface to the Romanian translation of  The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art,  by Roger Kimball

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Ninel Ganea

There are books and authors about which you somehow feel they must exist even if you have not met them yet. Under an avalanche of cultural nonsense, you are still waiting for the emergence of some intelligent voices, educated and courageous, to reconfirm the criteria, to affirm, without fear or uneasiness, that white is white and black is black, voices which are not intimidated by the spirit of time, by false academic requirements or endlessly cultural whims, and to write well and make an indispensable artistic recovery effort, in the spirit once proclaimed by T.S. Eliot, “elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste”. More

Music Industry Development – Future Global Trends on the Rise

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe

The music industry has developed at high speed in the last 30 years and it has changed the way music is listened to, purchased and even produced. Global Internet connections made possible the distribution of music in an instant and immaterial form. Daily, millions of people use different tools like Facebook Social Media, Google+, Twitter, Youtube etc., to interact with the music industry and its dedicated platforms like Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Spotify, Digitally Imported, etc. More

The Astana Process - Problems and Prospects

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Leonid Gusev

In late 2016, the heads of Russia and Turkey proposed to hold talks in Astana. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, during the telephone talks with Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported this initiative and expressed readiness to provide a platform for such talks. More

The Fight against Extremism in Central Asia and the Role of the SCO and the CSTO

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Igor A. Seleznev

This article is devoted to the problem of building regional security in the Central Asian States within the structures of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Only coalitional efforts of all interested States can provide effective resistance to the transborder terrorism in the region. Therefore, the importance of international cooperation in the field of security is increasing. Of the central Asian states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are members of CSTO. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan are members of the SCO. Therefore, the organizational-institutional framework of the CSTO and the Shanghai Pact allows these States to combat these threats. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan remains a neutral state, non-aligned to the blocs being formed or joined by its neighbors.  More

Youth Empowerment Seen from the Gulf Countries

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Marcela Ganea

Lack of communication, the failure of governments to design policies, inertia in changing mindsets and reluctance were the problems seen as obstacles in promoting the youth in today’s world during the 6^th edition of the International Government Communication Forum that took place last week in the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, a forum that gathered over 2,500 governmental experts, academics, researchers and business people, former Presidents of countries and Prime Ministers. More

Why the EU Banking Union Won’t Work for Long

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Filip Clem

Banks are economic profit driven entities taught to perform in a competitive environment. Business agents cannot act lawfully in a predetermined and heavily regulated environment without seeking new niches and innovative business lines. Historically, money lenders and banking establishments have lent money to all kinds of borrowers and have financed various activities. More

Planning for Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe: Mises’s Proposal for Political Integration

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Matei-Alexandru Apăvăloaei

Today, Ludwig von Mises (1881 - 1973) is primarily remembered for his contributions to economic theory. But Mises’ contributions are not confined to scholarly works on economics and epistemology. We may say that there is yet another side to this profound thinker and prodigious author, to which Ebeling (2012) astutely refers to as the "unknown Mises" or Mises, the applied economist. More

South-Asian Standoff: The Broader Implications of Russian Involvement in the South China Sea

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Adrian-Ioan Damoc

Sino-Russian relations are never easy to categorise neatly. Marked in equal measures by common interests and a mutual distrust, by a tendency to cooperate as well as the pressure of the competition that their geopolitical profiles consign them to, China and Russia have not had any significant clashes since the end of the Cold War, when a Sino-American alliance was forged as part of the US strategy to contain the USSR. Over the years, there have been various efforts on both camps to capitalise on their mutual interests and solidify their collaboration. Both countries are part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and China has resumed importing Russian military gear following a European Union-enforced arms embargo in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests. The NATO presence in Central Asia and the Middle East has also driven Russia and China to seek common ground in order to avert the expansion of American influence in the region. Moreover, in 2014, China and Russia signed a 30-year deal to sell energy to China and to build the ambitiously named Power of Siberia, a pipeline which would transport Russian gas to the Far East. More

Trump and the Paris Agreement

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Alexandru Georgescu

The negotiations for the Paris Agreement were concluded at the 21st Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2015, and it entered into force in October 2016. It has been signed by 195 countries and ratified by 144. President Trump has repeatedly spoken out against the Paris Agreement and the “climate change industry” and made it a campaign plank to exit the Agreement. For all of its apparent randomness, there is one obvious trend in his Cabinet appointments, past and present, which is to appoint people who exhibit an ideological break from the policies of the past Administration or who are skeptical of the worldview of their respective agencies. Naming a “climate change skeptic” and pro-business advocate, Scott Pruitt, to the Environmental Protection Agency was one such move. Naming a China and free trade skeptic, Robert Lighthizer, to be US Trade Representative (a Cabinet level appointment) was another. And there are still more examples, such as the failed nomination of fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder as Secretary of Labor. More

Budapest, Again the “Capital” of 16+1

No. 4, Mar.-Apr. 2017

Iulia Monica Oehler-Șincai

Budapest hosts this year on the 27th of November the sixth summit of 16+1 Initiative, designed China and its 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) partners. The first economic forum of the 16+1 countries took place also in Budapest, six years ago. The 16+1 mechanism was officially initiated in 2012 during the Warsaw Summit by the People’s Republic of China in order to stimulate the cooperation with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The subsequent yearly summits (Bucharest, Belgrade, Suzhou and Riga) and side events such as business forums, national coordinators’ gatherings, seminars and various 16+1 Ministers' meetings have given a new impetus to China-CEE relations.  More