Global Economy

Partnering with another business can be complex. It takes time and effort to build the right relationship. Problems are likely to arise if:

the objectives of the venture are not 100 per cent clear and communicated to everyone involved;

there is an imbalance in levels of expertise, investment or assets brought into the venture by the different partners;

different cultures and management styles result in poor integration and co-operation;

the partners don’t provide sufficient leadership and support in the early stages.

Success in a joint venture depends on thorough research and analysis of aims and objectives. This should be followed up with effective communication of the business plan to everyone involved.

A joint venture is a legal organization that takes the form of a short term partnership in which the persons jointly undertake a transaction for mutual profit. Generally each person contributes assets and share risks. Like a partnership, joint ventures can involve any type of business transaction and the “persons” involved can be individuals, groups of individuals, companies, or corporations.
Joint ventures are also widely used by companies to gain entrance into foreign markets. Foreign companies form joint ventures with domestic companies already present in markets the foreign companies would like to enter. The foreign companies generally bring new technologies and business practices into the joint venture, while the domestic companies already have the relationships and requisite governmental documents within the country along with being entrenched in the domestic industry.
The reasons behind the formation of a joint venture often include business expansion, development of new products or moving into new markets, particularly overseas.
Your business may have strong potential for growth, and you may have innovative ideas and products, but could still benefit from:

more resources;
greater capacity;
increased technical expertise;
established distribution channels.

Entering into a joint venture is a major decision. This guide introduces the advantages and disadvantages.
Businesses can often achieve unexpected gains through joint ventures with a partner. Businesses of any size can use joint ventures to strengthen long-term relationships or to collaborate on short-term projects.
A successful joint venture can offer:

access to new markets and distribution networks;
increased capacity;
sharing of risks with a partner;
access to specialized staff and technology.

A joint venture can also be very flexible. For example, a joint venture can have a limited life span and only cover part of what you do, thus limiting both your commitment and the business’ exposure.
Joint ventures are a popular form of co-operation between businesses in different countries in areas such as transport, tourism and hotels.

I will sit for my end-of-year examination this Monday. And I hope that I will pass it. Three more exams are left…

This year was very difficult, but at the same time very interesting for me. My favourite subject is Business English, it consists of different courses and this year we studied a new course called «Time Management». When I read its name for the first time in our timetable, I thought that it would be a usual lesson for improvement of our theoretical knowledge in the sphere of management, a lesson with a number of books and a lot of homework. It turned out, that I was wrong, but not in all…

We were offered a new method of teaching: we were teachers and pupils at the same time. And we didn’t lose this opportunity. We were given a chance to use all our knowledge and skills in practice – therein lays the most important thing. We understood what it is to be a teacher. We collected useful and interesting information, prepared our own lessons, tried to attract students’ attention, to make them speak and found out that it’s not easy. And as for volume of homework, I was right!

This course had its goals and there were some problems in their understanding, but now they are clear for every body. As I see them, the most important are:

to develop our skills as future leaders;

to teach us to speak in public;

to improve our language and spoken language;

to provide us with interesting and useful information;

to increase our vocabulary;

to make the atmosphere in the group more favorable;

to teach us listen an understand different views and thoughts of others.

It was new for us both in the information and knowledge we received, and in the way the lessons were conducted. Of course, sometimes the information wasn’t very interesting, it was too informative, or vise versa – it was simply uninformative. But we did our best! The lessons made us understand different views, thoughts of the group, combine them and to choose this or that way of solving the problem. Good talks in our group were due to the round table – the way our desks were situated – it made the atmosphere in the group more open and sincere. Sometimes the opinions of different members of the group didn’t coincide, but that made the lesson more interesting. They tried to convince the group in their «correct» standpoint.

The best lessons of course were conducted by those students, who were well informed of the subject they had to prepare and by those, who tried to combine theory with practice. The theory alone is only facts and it is very dull and it makes the lesson not interactive. Interaction was very important in the lessons of «Time management» and only interesting subject and different tasks could give it.

I hope that I will the opportunity to tell you about my own lesson, which I prepared for my group at university, but now unfortunately I’m pressed for time with my exams…:(

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n the world shrinking with e-mail, fax, and teleconferencing, your single most critical factor for success in managing yourself and others is how well you develop and use your own personal ability to communicate. Men and women who most successfully profit from their ability to send and receive all kinds of information orally and in writing face-to-face, across a desk, before a group, around the world…

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Also there were a lot of different students’ conferences this year. And I didn’t lose the opportunity to participate in them. One of my reports was devoted to gender problem in international business. And now I’d like to tell you about the most interesting parts of it…

Women have made great strides over the last century in areas where they were not historically equal to men; they gained the right to vote, they removed the barriers to traditionally male professions, and they changed the way society looked at them. Women are no longer viewed as primarily «emotional» creatures, but are judged on their individual qualities.

But the gender problem is still burning all over the world and especially in the countries of the former USSR, Belarus is no exception. The fact that there is still women and men’s work, and still separate play for boys and girls, show how these are apparent even today. By breaking down these stereotypes and allowing men - or women - to be as feminine or masculine as they choose give them a chance to be individuals. And that is why the United Nations Development Programme supports the idea of expanding the public space for women in Belarus.

This Project is for women aspiring to social, political and professional success; for men willing to support active women’ striving for self-realization and for anyone interested in the sustainable democratic development of Belarus.

Society creates artificial barriers in the way of women’s professional, political and social careers thus depriving itself of the great potential that this social group possesses. Gender equality is a prerequisite to the effective development of this country. The goal of the Project is to ensure the real access to the sphere of decision-making for Belarusian women.

In order to feel motivated, reach out and participate in the decision-making women must first attain self-affirmation. Up-to-date education, relevant knowledge and skills are all ingredients of success that would allow women to become leaders. The Project provides an opportunity to get the education that fits women’s needs, status and employment.

Providing equal opportunities means not only that women must be able to gain the education that would allow them to access such traditionally masculine spheres as big politics, serious business, higher levels of power. Equal opportunities are founded, first and foremost, on equal rights. The Project calls for expanding women’s impact on the legislative process to ensure the gender equality in the society.

Women who aspire to participate in decision-making face an invisible obstacle in the form of the public opinion. The stereotypical view on the limited role of women in the public sphere unfortunately still exists in our society. It cultivates in women the predisposition to passiveness and dependence, and, at best, provides them with a sort of a greenhouse – a limited scope of possibilities of personal self-realization.

Women who have strength, knowledge and ambition to participate in public life want to step outside the greenhouse and into a real world. Yet, too often they cannot declare their aspirations because of the social disapproval that would follow.

The Project aims at working with Mass Media to facilitate the change of public opinion and create a friendlier social environment for women. Creation of social advertising is one direction of work with mass-media. The social advertising, that were created during such cooperation, got two first prizes in nominations «Noncommercial printed advertising» and «Video advertising» in the Seventh world festival of advertising «Idea! 2006» and two first prizes in the fourth Kiev International Festival of Advertising.

It is important to consider the gender inequality as an economic problem, not only social one!

Women represent the biggest social - demographic group in Belarus. There are above 5,000,000 women that make up 53 % of all the population living in this country. Today women face with excessive loadings on work, growth of unemployment and poverty. In each branch of the economy there are significant distinctions in the incomes received by men and women. The average wages of women make 81 % from average wages of men. In spite of the fact, that women and men have the same educational level.

Thus, the gender problem is really urgent in our society because having refused from a social equality of men and women we refuse huge prospects of successful economic development of our country.

East or West — home is best

The latest research of many scientific centers proved that the tendency towards the transfer to large cities and metropolises of the key efforts aimed at improving living standards and environment, increasing the competitive potential of economy and struggle for outlets will prevail in the 21^st century. The globalization process will facilitate the creation of global cities, the centers managing the world economy, financial markets and science intensive productions. Some megalopolis of the world became    city-states. Foe example, the following cities:

1. New York

2. Chicago

3. Washington

in United States of America

4. London

in United Kingdom

5. Berlin

in Germany

6. Rome

7. Milan

in Italy

8. Moscow

in Russia

(Would you like to continue this list???)

These tendencies, which were described above, prompted the necessity to elaborate the concept and strategic plan of a sustainable development of the city of Minsk (the capital of Belarus) by the year 2020.

The Minsk development concept fits in the formula «Five cities in one». The first component of the concept is «The city of health and high social standards». It means the top priority of the technological and socio-economic progress in Belarus’ capital city is not the development of production or technological values, but the Human Being and his/her physical and spiritual health in a safe and favorable environment. The following conditions are to be met to ensure this component:

- clean water,

- clean air, warmth in houses,

- good nutrition, etc.

The second part of the concept – «The city of knowledge and science intensive technologies» – includes the development of the educational, science-innovation complex, creation of a state-of-the-art information structure, restructuring of the industrial complex, technological upgrade of construction and power engineering and encouragement of foreign economic activity.

The third basis of the sustainable development of the city of Minsk is «The city is the center of international communication». It envisages further development of external transport functions, the culture component, tourism, and city media. Besides the economic benefit the communication progress results in a huge advantage for international and human communication in the modern integrated world.

The fourth strategy of Minsk’s sustainable development - «The city favorable for business and attractive for investments» – envisages the creation of such conditions as a favorable tax climate, land relations that correspond to market relations and establishment of the real estate market.

The fifth component of the Minsk development concept is «The city developing democracy with a wide representation of citizens». It aims at elaborating the rules of living in the city, methods of city administration and the interaction between the city authorities, population, companies and organizations, as well as ways to effectively perform the functions of the capital of the country.

«Sustainable development of the city» is not a new tag for old ideas, but a completely new approach directed towards the next generation. Sustainable development is necessary not only for regional, but also for global development, because the ultimate goal is to coordinate the interests of generations, develop social cooperation, improve living standards and become more responsible on a global scale.

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There is no place like home

Euronext  + NYSE  = the first transatlantic stock market (the biggest in the world)

Euronext is second-largest stock market and it will be bought for 7.8 billion euros

Euronext CEO Jean-Francois Theodore think that there are a lot of benefits in this nerger:

+ the new stock market will connect stocks and options in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and London (netting system);

+ The common trading system;

+ More liquidity;

+ Huge economies of scale;

+ A netting system suppressing risk and reducing margins.
It means «all settlements in one single platform»!

The NYSE is the world’s largest stock market (the total capitalization of companies’ shares = 11,000 billion euros).

according to http://euronews.net