Missing the Target: Brazil's Agricultural Policy Indirectly Subsidizes Foreign Investments to the Detriment of Smallholder Farmers and Local Agribusiness

Currently there is controversy about the effect of direct foreign investment in the Brazilian agricultural sector, mainly due to the impact it has on small farmers, land use, the environment, and food security. In this context, Brazil finds itself in an even more delicate situation, since in order to remain a bulwark of the economy, Brazilian agribusiness depends heavily on public policies that directly impact its treasury. This suggests there is an indirect transfer of public resources to transnational companies involved in agribusiness production chains. This paper assesses the allocation of agricultural credits in Brazil and the market share held by Brazilian groups, vis-à-vis multinational corporations in the agribusiness supply chains. The study was carried out analyzing the three largest supply chains established in the country: soybean, corn, and cattle. Results reveal that 75% of the operating credit (crédito de custeio), which represents 60% of the total government credit in Brazil, goes directly to soybean, corn, and cattle farmers. Most of this subsidized credit budget goes to the soybean farmers, which are mostly encompassed by large farmers. Results also reveal that 76.1% of the soybean supply chain in Brazil is controlled by foreign multinational corporations. These findings suggest that resources invested in large farmers that take part in supply chains controlled by multinational foreign groups end up indirectly financing foreign companies to the detriment of local smallholder farmers and domestic agribusiness. This highlights the need for restructuring Brazilian agricultural policy in favor of family farmers and domestic agribusiness.

Russia's position in the economic relations of the USA and China

Subject. The article discusses the international economic relations. Objectives. I determine Russia's position in the economic relations of the USA and China. Methods. The study is based on the systems approach and the method of statistical, neural network and cluster analysis. Results. I discovered the persisting dominance of the USA over the world economy due to a growth in broad money supply, which makes it the leader in food exports, trade balance and industrial exports. The same reasons helps the USA constrain some material aspects of economic growth in Russia and China, such as inflation, direct foreign investment, ultimate consumption spending, real interest rate, the ratio of broad money supply to total reserves, total value of traded stocks, export of food, goods and services. Trends in SPX, SHCOMP, RTSI и DXY, USDRUB, USDCNY, USDBRO shows that China strives to reach the U.S. economic level given the stable exchange rate. Raising USDRUB, Russia approaches DXY. In case of low USDBRO, RTSI growth will be significantly curbed. Considering commodities within foreign trade between Russia, the USA and China, I should point out resource exports, while importing technology from the USA and equipment from China. Conclusions and Relevance. Studying Russia's position in the U.S.–Chinese economic relations, I found that the Russian government should revise foreign trade priorities to end the political and economic independence on the above relations. The findings contribute to the knowledge and competence of the Russian government members for making complementary administrative decision on sources of foreign trade and seizing opportunities for encouraging it.

Determinants of High-tech Export in CEE and CIS Countries

Any government strives to stimulate export activity in high-tech sectors of its economy. Surprisingly, there are few empirical papers on the determinants of high-tech export to date. This study analyses the economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) due to the differences they experienced in the transition period. To this end, we used the Balassa index, which is based on the concept of revealed comparative advantages. The research examines 73 groups of products from the automotive, chemical, mechanical engineering, electronics and electrical engineering industries in 27 countries from 1995 to 2018. Principal component analysis helped generate an indicator of comparative advantage of hightech industries for each country in each year. It is revealed that CEE countries, as well as the Baltic countries, have achieved significant success in the development of high-tech sectors of the economy, while the CIS countries have shown practically no progress in this direction. The article tests hypotheses on the impact of resources, foreign trade, macroeconomy and innovation on export activity in the country. The following factors stimulate the export growth in high-tech industries of the studied countries: level of wages and resource prices, openness of the economy to foreign trade; tax rate; unemployment rate; quality of human capital. We did not find empirical evidence of the positive impact of inflation, inflows of direct foreign investment, and the level of research and development (R&D) costs on the volume of high-tech export of the examined economies.

BRIC Bilateral Direct Foreign Investment Relations with South Africa: A Critical Review

This article explores the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) countries’ bilateral foreign investment relations with South Africa. It analyses investment patterns through the lens of the South African Foreign Investment Policy, and provides recommendations for the country to increase foreign investment from the BRIC. The article utilises a qualitative desktop approach, drawing from extensive literature review on BRICS’ foreign investment relations. The findings show that, despite the numerous foreign investment treaties signed within BRIC in South Africa’s favour, investments from BRIC are lagging. To increase direct investment flows, South Africa should relax entry and offer special incentives in critical sectors; such as energy, health, food production and mining; create a more stable and transparent legal environment; establish special and industrial economic zones as well as a clear foreign investment policy.

Transformation of the economy of Ukrainian cities of regional significance: efficiency of the impact on the socio-economic developmen

The paper proposes a methodological approach to evaluating the impact of the transformation taking place in the economies of cities of regional significance (CRSs) on the socio-economic development of regions (oblasts). The analysis is conducted for cities of regional significance in the western part of Ukraine. The article emphasizes the asymmetry of regional socio-economic development as a result of the concentration of business activity and capital in the CRSs, a higher level of reception of growing direct foreign investment in the economies of CRSs compared to capital investment; a strong impact of structural changes in the economies of CRS on the Gross Regional Product (GRP). The authors found that the development of most CRSs was based on industrial production. Only half of the oblasts in Western Ukraine analyzed in the study showed evidence indicating that economies of their CRSs are undergoing a transformation towards service economy (which should correspond to the post-industrial development of the country).

Multi-dimensional analysis of regional investment attractiveness in Poland

Research background: A given region's investment attractiveness is a set of conditions that depend primarily on the policy of the country that is the recipient of direct foreign investment, encouraging or discouraging foreign investors from making decisions about locating investments in a given area. These conditions include the economic conditions, the infrastructure, the political and legal system, the business environment, and the sociocultural environment. a foreign investor, the motive for exporting capital abroad is the search for benefits that can be derived from the business activity conducted there, including easier entry into new markets. Purpose of the article: The main aim of the paper is to distinguish groups of voivodeships (NUTS 2 level) that are relatively homogeneous in terms of investment attractiveness, which is conducive to the inflow of foreign capital and the implementation of investment projects involving foreign capital. Methods: Distinguishing groups of voivodeships similar to each other in terms of the level of investment attractiveness is made by applying hierarchical cluster analysis. The dendrogram illustrates the hierarchical structure of clusters of similar objects according to the analysed set of variables. The quality of the clustering result is also assessed by determining the silhouette index. Comparative and descriptive analysis of CSO statistics are additional methods used that have contributed to the achievement of the aim of the paper. The research period covers the years 2000?2018. Findings & value added: The investment attractiveness of a voivodeship is closely related to the level of its economic development. Therefore, the following voivodeships are listed at the top of the investment attractiveness rankings: Mazowieckie, Dolnośląskie, Śląskie, Małopolskie, and Pomorskie. The conducted study has confirmed that the creation of special economic zones and the development of regional smart specialisations contribute to the inflow of foreign capital. It is worth noting that the assessment of investment attractiveness is relative. The comparison of the innovative attractiveness of voivodeships is based on the use of the average value, overestimated by cities, i.e. central hubs, attracting investors. The regional perspective on investment attractiveness using multi-dimensional statistical analysis methods is the added value of the article.

Institutions for the development of the Extended Tumangan Initiative as one of the factors impacting regional economy

The subject of this article is the examination of the institutions development institutions of the Extended Tumangan Initiative and their impact upon regional economy. The relevance of this topic is associated with the fact that the creation of special economic zones, including industrial parks, has a specifically positive effect on economic development and ability of the regions to attract direct foreign investment. The countries of Northeast Asia offer the advantages of high economic complementarity, trustworthy relations that are the foundation for economic cooperation, and the experience of industrial clusterization in form of various entities that ensure optimization of the economic structure, trade flow, stimulation of investment, and strengthening of business ties. The Extended Tumangan Initiative was created specifically for this purpose, which today serves as one of the sources of economic development in the region. The article employs the methods of scientific knowledge, which are substantiated by the research tasks in determining the place and role of the institutions of the development of the Extended Tumangan Initiative; studying the content and peculiarities of assessing the development of this territory and Russia’s participation therein; for substantiating the practical grounds of this initiative as the factor impacting regional economy. Leaning on the analysis of cooperation of the member-states in the initiative, the author highlights the following priority vectors of cooperation within the Extended Tumagan Initiative: facilitation of transboundary trade; development of the system of transport infrastructure and tourism; improvement of the system of logistics and transport systems in the region; expansion of scientific and technological cooperation; solution of environmental problems of the territory; engagement of the territories of the Extended Tumangan Initiative into global economy. The author substantiates the importance of the Extended Tumangan Initiative as the only international platform for coordination of the actions of the regional countries.

articles/v6n12/bed/ijaar-sms-v6n12-dec20-p13.pdf

This study is an empirical inquiry into the impact of Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) of other countries into the manufacturing sector in River State, Nigeria. It would lead to a better understanding of the economic mechanism and the behavior of economic agents, both at micro and macro cadre allowing the opening of new areas of study in economic growths. This study would also look through the advantages and disadvantages which foreign direct investment has on Nigeria economy, thereby, reveal if there is a correlation between the direct foreign investment and the Nigerian economy. As a cross section survey, data for this study was generated using well and articulately structured survey from 50 respondents across 10 manufacturing firms in Rivers State. A total of three hypotheses were proposed with analysis revealing the relationship between direct foreign investments and manufacturing sector, it was revealed that direct foreign investment had a positive and significant relationship with manufacturing sector. The researcher believes that if appropriate actions are taken and necessary structures erected, the Nigerian manufacturing sector will be a healthier place to access the benefits that foreign direct investment conveys. This will lead to growth in Nigeria manufacturing sector. It was revealed that in spite of the acknowledged remuneration foreign direct investment conveys. It is nonetheless, criticized on grounds, of the defective activities that foreign investors indulge in. In conclusion, the study showed that the expansion of the manufacturing sector and direct foreign investment in Nigeria is based on a number of problems which may be reason for the positive but insignificant impact on DFI when the variables was regressed against manufacturing sector. It was at that point recommended that, Government needs to do a few needful in order to motivate foreign investors, this is by providing good and right social infrastructure and also a pool of relevant workforce, a safe working environment against militancy and a potentially strong market for their product and services can be sold.