Fostering sustainable small-scale investments: lessons from experience and ideas for intervention and innovation

This article presents lessons from experience pertinent to implementing small-scale natural resource and related investment projects in developing countries. It outlines ideas for intervention and innovation to foster such investments. Particular emphasis is placed on private-sector participation in these investments. Following a brief presentation of the economic development and other arguments that support intervention and innovation in support of such small-scale natural resource investments, the article discusses many of the lessons learned from experience. These lessons reinforce those touched upon in the investment-specific discussions in the previous articles. The experience and associated lessons that are examined include experiences in both developing and developed countries and encompass not just lessons from natural resource investments, but also small-scale investments in other sectors. Financing and other innovations which facilitate meeting the challenges are drawn from relevant experience where barriers to investment have been surmounted. Options for programme and project interventions to increase market penetration of small-scale investments and achieve the associated development linkages and synergies are suggested. These suggestions are aimed especially at governments and bilateral and multilateral development finance and development assistance entities. It is those players who might support such interventions in collaboration with local financial institutions and other market players.     

SOME CONJUNCTIVE DESALTING STUDIES EN THE UNITED KINGDOM1

ABSTRACT .Operating rule procedures are developed for the optimal use of desalination in conjunction with surface water impoundments. Results obtained from the use of hill-climbing and dynamic programming methods are compared. Benefits to be obtained from the integrated use of desalination are demonstrated through a case study for the Barcelona area of Spain.     

风险投资:一种发现企业价值型的投资

风险投资已经被各国公认为中小企业尤其是高科技企业成长的"推进器"。为了深入理解风险投资的本质,从风险投资的行为和基本特征入手,通过对价值理论的回顾和企业价值表述方式的描述,揭示了风险投资作为发现价值型投资的本质,即通过发现投资对象的潜在价值并通过不断的增值服务使潜在的价值逐步显化,从而得到大多数投资者认可后实施股权转让获得丰厚回报的投资本质。     

FACTORS AFFECTING WATERWAY INVESTMENT DECISIONS1

ABSTRACT: There are many factors, other than economic efficiency, which must be considered in judging the merits of proposed investments in the inland navigation system. No satisfactory formula exists for deciding the net worth of public investments in water resources projects. Such a measure would not be accepted because these investments can serve conflicting goals. Political, rather than technical, judgments are required to resolve these goal conflicts.     

A CODED ALGORITHM FOR CAPACITY EXPANSION OF A WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a mathematical model, an algorithm and a computer program that were specially developed to study the problem of a water quality management system undergoing a rapidly increasing environmental stress. The model output will determine the locations, sizes and the timing of construction of new treatment plants plus an overall treatment plant operating policy so that environmental standards are maintained at a minimum cost. The model, as formulated, is a 0-1 mixed integer programming problem which is solved by decomposing it into a capital budgeting problem (solved by Little's branch and bound algorithm) and an operational policy problem (solved by linear programming). The coded algorithm (in FORTRAN 10) has been tested with a semi-realistic example.     

基于产业投资视角的乡村旅游发展区域差异与形成机制

乡村旅游发展区域差异是乡村旅游投资空间不均衡的外在表现。新时代乡村振兴背景下乡村旅游投资不断增长,正加速影响乡村旅游发展空间格局与区域差异。在对比认识浙晋乡村旅游发展差异基础上,深入剖析了乡村旅游投资系统作用区域乡村旅游发展差异的深层机理。结果发现：（1）以乡村旅游精品线路为表征的浙晋乡村旅游发展水平和市场成熟度差异显著。（2）在乡村旅游投资“自然—产业—社会”环境中,产业基础环境对区域乡村旅游发展差异贡献最突出,是区域差异形成的核心要素,自然生态环境是基础,社会文化环境则发挥积极促进作用。（3）乡村旅游发展区域差异是不同乡村旅游投资环境引起区域乡村旅游投资收益预期和回报水平与乡村旅游发展路径及模式差异的结果。基于此,提出新时代乡村旅游投资IE-maps模式,以期促进区域乡村旅游协调发展和乡村振兴战略实施。     

试论中国环境投资的市场化运作

针对政府财政资金不能满足环境投资资金的短缺现象及环境投资的低效率，本文从国民经济的宏观层面分析中国环境投资市场化运作的必要性与可能性。结合现实中国环境投资市场化运作中政府、排污企业及金融企业在环境治理中存在的非市场行为。指出应规范政府、排污企业的环境投资行为，使其成为理性的环境投资主体，同时还应培育新的环境投资主体——环境投资公司。最终理源环境保护市场内部的关系。     

The idea of sustainable development

In this lecture, I demonstrate how very different macroeconomic history begins to look if Nature is included as a capital asset in production activities. The tentative conclusions I draw from the evidence are: (1) high population growth in the world’s poorest regions (South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa) has been an obstacle to the achievement of sustainable economic development there; relatedly, (2) when population growth is taken into account, the accumulation of manufactured capital, knowledge, and human capital (health and education) has not compensated for the degradation of natural capital in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and, in all probability, even in the UK and the US; (3) China is possibly an exception to (1) and (2). This article is based on the Keynote Lecture delivered at the international symposium on “Sustainability in an Unequal World”, held in Tokyo on November 24, 2006. The exposition relies on my book, Economics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007. The author is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.     

防灾工程动态投资决策分析

本文应用最优控制理论对作者在文献[1]中所建立的两个防灾工程多变量动态投资决策模型进行了求解和理论分析。在一些基本符合工程实际的假设下得到了模型的解析解以及一些有意义的结果。     

CONJUNCTIVE SURFACE AND GROUND WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE JAKARTA REGION,INDONESIA1

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the degree of economic inefficiency of the current institutional arrangements for surface and ground water management in meeting urban water demand in the Jakarta region. A numerical model of integrated surface and ground water management is developed using GAMS (General Algebraic Modelling System) software. The model maximizes the net present value of social benefits from piped water and ground water consumption across all users over time from 1999 to 2025. Four policy scenarios are examined: the status quo, the social planner's solution, and two ground water pumping quota scenarios: an aggregate ground water pumping quota and a partial quota applied to commercial and industrial users. Three variations in each policy scenario are considered: investment in water infrastructure of the Jakarta water enterprise (PAM Jaya), water demand growth, and discount rates. The status quo, depending on the investment option, the growth of water demand, and the discount rate, results in a 7.4 to 47.8 percent loss in economic efficiency relative to the social planner's solution. The partial quota is the most feasible, applicable, and manageable scenario. The optimal investment option could increase the volume of piped water supply and reduce the cost of water production. The volume of water delivery could increase by up to 156 percent, but it implies only a 35 percent increase in the surface raw water demands above the current level. However, it does not significantly reduce cumulative ground water extraction over the time period considered.