Infrastructure

The history of cultural space is viewed as a history of constant and necessary modernization of infrastructure. The main feature of infrastructure is the network organization and the constructive role of hub-nodes and connections and their bent for rationalization and transnational trends. The power, directions and goals of infrastructure determine the development of cities. Modern strategies for general social development imply the emergence of efficient communication corridors, highway networks and hubs located along the perimeter of the country, determining the country’s gravitation toward global connections and interactions. The development of quality infrastructure is a contribution to the future and an area of the authorities’ responsibility.

A Grounded Theory on Sustainable Circular Public Procurement in Germany: Specific Product Case and Strategies

By using its purchasing power to procure environmentally friendly goods and services, the public sector can significantly contribute to sustainability in production and consumption. The sector’s support is also needed for the development of a circular economy (CE), but the absence of a suitable procurement practice often constitutes a barrier. A pressing example for a global need to develop the CE further exists in the tyre context. By the end of 2030, the number of end-of-life tyres (ELT) is expected to rise significantly. This article analyses the role and situation of public procurement and the necessity of quality infrastructure elements to support a sustainable tyre CE in the European Union’s member state Germany. It relies on a multiple case case study-based Grounded Theory approach and 22 interviews with public procurement professionals. Five types of barriers for sustainable circular tyre procurement were identified, concerning regulatory, technical, social, market, and ecological aspects. Possible strategies to overcome them were developed, leading to 14 recommendations for German policymakers and public procurement organisations. In particular, the recommendations focus on the two quality infrastructure elements ‘standards’ and ‘labelling’, with four standardization aspects and eight labelling topics in total.

Evaluation of Key Factor of Digital Economy in European Union

Research purpose. This article presents insights on the concept and key factors of the digital economy based on a literature review. The article focuses on the identification of the factors of the digital economy and evaluation of their importance in terms of the European Union countries. The aim of the article is to determine the factors of the digital economy and evaluate their importance. Design / Methodology / Approach. Panel regression analysis was used to evaluate which indicator of selected digital economy indicators is the most important. Panel regression was chosen to have an overall view of all European Union as one unit. Findings. Digital technologies are radically changing the way society, business or the whole economy operates. The survey of this article reveals that the high-quality infrastructure of the internet plays an essential role in the digital economy. In order to create value and improve the ICT sector performance in the whole economy, high-quality infrastructure in terms of the internet is needed. Only fast and high-stability connection ensures needed infrastructure and development in the digital economy. Business and government should invest in high-quality internet infrastructure to ensure the steady growth of the digital economy. To take full advantage of digital infrastructure and the digital economy, individuals should use it daily. Daily usage of the internet has a positive effect on the percentage for the ICT sector in GDP regardless of activities on the internet. Originality / Value / Practical implications. Definition of the digital economy was suggested: the digital economy is considered to be all economic activities that include using or creating digital technologies to generate value-added of digital enablers and development of digital infrastructure, which is the key factor of the digital economy. High quality and available for everyone internet access is crucial for steady growth and the best performance of the digital economy. This study has several practical contributions. This survey may serve as a guide for understanding the concept and the factors of the digital economy for other researchers. We also propose a potential explanation why countries should invest in high technology infrastructure, and these results can help to create a new strategy for ICT sector expansion in different countries.

Application of Lean Manufacturing Concepts to Evolving a Policy for Engineering Education

This work analyzes the current situation of engineering education in India, especially technical universities characterized by low-quality infrastructure, inflexible curricula, and poor teaching resources including faculty, usually resulting in low student learning and very low graduate placement rates, and identifies the root causes of these problems, summarizes the methodologies adapted by previous researchers in the lean area, and applies the lean manufacturing philosophy to engineering education. This paper applies a value stream map to analyze the current state of engineering education. This technique identifies eight wastes and is given in form of a current state diagram. A future state diagram is presented that recommends solutions to eliminate these wastes. These recommendations make learning processes responsive to needs and provide long-lasting value to students. Overall, it is beneficial in developing a policy for engineering education.

Public-Private Partnership in New Zealand and Malaysia

<p>The importance of high quality infrastructure and its maintenance lies in its ability to stimulate economic growth as it fuels business activities, creates job opportunities, markets product, and generates earnings (Yakcop, 2006a). In consideration of this importance, the public sector encourages private sector participation in the delivery of public services and infrastructure in terms of funding and expertise. A successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) is one vehicle used internationally. Both New Zealand and Malaysia acknowledge the potential of PPPs in delivering high quality infrastructure and services to the general public. Consequently, both countries made a move towards PPPs by creating PPP-specialized units and producing PPP guidelines. However, thus far, Malaysia has been more active in pursuing PPPs when compared to New Zealand‘s cautious approach to PPPs. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to find out the reasoning behind this trend. Issues relevant to reasons for implementing PPPs, features of PPPs, allocation of risks, performance indicators and accounting for PPPs are analysed to justify this trend. This thesis finds that the Malaysian "Vision 2020" has signalled a government preference for PPPs, including its ability to encourage bumiputera participation. Further, the government has developed a system involving Special Purpose Vehicles and utilizing government-held superannuation funds for project finance aid. Consequently, the system reduces the transfer of risk from the public sector to the private sector partners. This has transcended the major issue in New Zealand where the lack of a competitive market has restricted the development of PPPs. A lack of public support has also contributed to New Zealand‘s PPP under-development.</p>

Public-Private Partnership in New Zealand and Malaysia

<p>The importance of high quality infrastructure and its maintenance lies in its ability to stimulate economic growth as it fuels business activities, creates job opportunities, markets product, and generates earnings (Yakcop, 2006a). In consideration of this importance, the public sector encourages private sector participation in the delivery of public services and infrastructure in terms of funding and expertise. A successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) is one vehicle used internationally. Both New Zealand and Malaysia acknowledge the potential of PPPs in delivering high quality infrastructure and services to the general public. Consequently, both countries made a move towards PPPs by creating PPP-specialized units and producing PPP guidelines. However, thus far, Malaysia has been more active in pursuing PPPs when compared to New Zealand‘s cautious approach to PPPs. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to find out the reasoning behind this trend. Issues relevant to reasons for implementing PPPs, features of PPPs, allocation of risks, performance indicators and accounting for PPPs are analysed to justify this trend. This thesis finds that the Malaysian "Vision 2020" has signalled a government preference for PPPs, including its ability to encourage bumiputera participation. Further, the government has developed a system involving Special Purpose Vehicles and utilizing government-held superannuation funds for project finance aid. Consequently, the system reduces the transfer of risk from the public sector to the private sector partners. This has transcended the major issue in New Zealand where the lack of a competitive market has restricted the development of PPPs. A lack of public support has also contributed to New Zealand‘s PPP under-development.</p>

Dynamic Knowledge Graph Based Construction of Quality Infrastructure System for Non-API Oil Country Tubular Goods

With the deep exploitation of oil and gas resources, the non-API oil country tubular goods (OCTG) adapted to specific environments are used widely. Therefore, how to effectively characterize the quality connotation of non-API OCTG to ensure their quality has become a challenge for the petroleum industry. We propose a dynamic knowledge graph of Quality Infrastructure (QI) to solve the problems of the diversity of non-API OCTG quality influencing factors, the concealment of the relationship, and the ambiguity of the mechanism of quality improvement. Firstly, a knowledge graph ontology framework of quality infrastructure is constructed, which realizes the effective combination of product characteristics and quality basic elements. Secondly, based on the professional dictionary in the field of OCTG, entity recognition adopts the entity recognition method of LDA-BiLSTM-CRF, which effectively improves the recognition accuracy of professional vocabulary. Finally, the relationship between entity types is defined as the edge of the knowledge graph; the graph embedding method is used to supplement the edge connection and calculation weight of the knowledge graph. The QI knowledge graph constructed with this technology can well describe the quality connotation of non-API OCTG, and provide opinions and methods for guaranteeing and improving the quality of non-API OCTG.

Assessing government plan and residents’ support for agropolitan housing development in the Greater Port Harcourt city, River State, Nigeria

This paper examined, why the Rivers State Government of Nigeria engaged in the Greater Port Harcourt city project as well as individual communities’ residents’ attitudes in support or against government demand of communities’ land for agropolitan residential housing development in the GPH city. Survey questionnaire retrieved from 258 heads of households in 8 selected communities of the Greater Port Harcourt city and key informants’ responses were the methods used. The result shows that Greater Port Harcourt City was born to contain and curtail the spill over population, provide good and quality infrastructure and services, upgrade informal settlements and create sustainable residential developments. Respondents’ attitude towards land acquisition for self-sustainable agropolitan residential housing development was positive and supportive with modal first to three mention of “More persons will own better homes (27.3%), it will enable me own my personal house (18.2%) and it will solve the housing problem in the area (16.3%) respectively’.

Industrial parks in Ukraine: current situation and development prospects in the conditions of digitalization of innovative economy

Introduction. Industrial park (cluster) is a relatively new form of economic organization, which in many developed countries plays a significant role in shaping and ensuring the competitiveness of countries and territories. Despite the economic viability of economic clusters, clusters have not yet become widespread in Ukraine, in contrast to highly developed countries. The modern development of the innovative economy, combined with comprehensive digitalization, makes its adjustments – opportunities and risks – in the functioning of economic entities of all forms and levels, which must be considered. The purpose of the paper is to study the current state of industrial parks in Ukraine and to analyse the prospects for their development. Results. In the article, the authors explored the innovative economy's digitalization features and provided its definition. They assessed the current state of industrial parks in Ukraine, identified fully operational parks, have high-quality infrastructure facilities, and have residents with actually operating plants. Identified the reasons for their inefficient functioning and developed recommendations for improving the formation and operation of industrial parks in Ukraine, using digital tools of the innovative economy. It was noted that the innovative component of successful implementation in practice of a regionally integrated approach is the addition or expansion of activities through narrower (specialized) approaches that have a clear, practical focus. Such specialization can be the development of industrial tourism. The second way of efficiency of an industrial park is its unique specialization, for example, the chemical industry. Each focus or specialization should be evaluated and determined in each case. Conclusion. Industrial parks are an essential tool of the country's economy, which can make the country a leader; however, this form of organization carries risks, the main of which is the imitation of the industrial park for illicit enrichment. Therefore, it is necessary to further improve the mechanism of regulation and especially control by the state over the activities of industrial parks.