Abstract

The services sector in Indonesia accounts for more than half of total value added, employs more than 55 million workers, and provides 35 percent of overall inputs to the productive sectors of the economy. Improving quality, increasing diversity and reducing costs in service sectors produce is likely to greatly improve Indonesia s competitiveness across all sectors. With a focus on the manufacturing sector, this note argues that relaxing restrictions on competition and on the participation of foreign firms, in services can be expected to improve service sector performance, and lead to economy-wide benefits in terms of productivity and competitiveness. It does so by reviewing the international evidence available, and by presenting new evidence for Indonesia on the positive spillovers that easing restrictions has had on the productivity of domestic manufacturing firms. The economic impact of these spillovers is sizable. In fact, spillovers from service sector reform account for about 8 percent of the observed increase in Indonesian manufacturing productivity over the period 1997-2009.

Abstract

The main objective of the report is to analyze the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory process in Romania, and provide recommendations for improving the system in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of inventory development in compliance with United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) and European Union (EU) requirements, including emissions forecasting provisions. This report describes the GHG inventory process and its history, analyzes the legal framework, documents and information provisions, and flows related to making the inventory together with identifying the potential adjustments for improvement, assess reporting entities and correlation mechanisms to economic dynamics, in terms of completeness, coherence, response time constant to changes in the number of companies' impact on data reporting, and provides recommendations on the possibility to improve the inventory-making process in order to meet the requirements of emission projections. The report is organized into seven sections as follows: section one provides a general introduction to GHG inventories. Section two examines the processes and procedures used in the present GHG inventory system in Romania and the alignment of this system with international frameworks including the framework for the development of environmental statistics (FDES) and the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) schematic framework. Section three elaborates the challenges with the existing greenhouse inventory process including data gaps and weaknesses in the statistical infrastructure. Section four looks at the international and national legal requirements for greenhouse gas inventories. Section five provides analysis on the flow of information and the specific verification points to ensure data consistency and coherence. Section six provides a number of recommendations and concludes in section seven with a summary of key recommendations.

Abstract

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are considered to be the answer to current challenges in road traffic, such as increasing congestion and energy consumption. With the increasing deployment of ITS and new possibilities of digitalisation, the connection and interworking of ITS and ITS services in the form of ITS value chains and networks have become more and more attractive or even indispensable. However, the interoperability of systems and services and the smooth cooperation and collaboration of involved organisations and actors are not an obvious matter. ITS architecture addresses the issue of interoperability in particular, incentivises the deployment of ITS even further and provides organisational, functional and technical guidance."br" This report describes the outline and the status of a German research project with the objective of developing a National ITS Architecture Framework which aims to support ITS activities in Germany. The framework is not based on existing ITS architectures since it is expected to provide a wider view than any ITS architecture before. A common strategy and vision of all involved actors are the core of the approach. They are the foundation of the business architecture which describes the functional decomposition of the system and the relationships between organisations. Strategy and business architecture also represent the top layers of the so called ITS architecture pyramid and distinguish the presented ITS architecture framework from others. The TOGAF Architecture Development Method has been used and tailored to the needs of ITS architecture since it excellently integrates the core aspects and provides a step-by-step guidance for the complete process of developing an ITS architecture.

Abstract

This research sets out to examine the interaction between accessibility, social inequalities and sustainability by revisiting a well-documented case of inequalities in access in Global South cities: Bogotá . Our analysis builds on the concept of accessibility, focusing on the role of transport as an enabler of opportunities for social interactions, healthcare and leisure, which are essential to the full participation in society. The research applies a methodological framework for accessibility developed and tested in the Latin American context, though it has not been previously applied to non-commuting travel. Our paper contributes to the existing evidence base showing the relevance of non-commuting travel to sustainable transport assessment in contexts of high inequality, which can be scaled up and applied in other contexts with various levels of social and environmental inequalities. The empirical analysis is based on data from Bogotá &rsquo s household travel survey. Using this dataset, we measure accessibility using a gravitational type of metric that is calibrated based on observed travel behavior. Accessibility levels were estimated by car and public transport for every zonal planning unit in the Bogotá Region. Accessibility indices are analyzed from an equity perspective using metrics such as the Palma ratio for differences of income and socioeconomic positions. Results show that on average, low- and middle-income areas have higher accessibility than high-income areas by both private and public transport. Accessibility conditions are discussed considering a framework of transitions to sustainable urban mobility, reflecting on various drivers and consequences of barriers to access in different areas and social groups. Our findings provide insights to support actions that redistribute accessibility of opportunities beyond the job market, questioning the applicability of accessibility measures to discuss equity and sustainability in cities such as Bogotá . Document type: Article

Abstract

The expansion of the daily news podcast format in the media industry has brought new narrative opportunities and shows the strength of the audio medium. For this reason, a qualitative analysis of the daily news podcast ecosystem has been performed from the strategy and business model perspectives through a comparative study of 14 cases (10 with media parent companies and 4 independent) in the Spanish-speaking segment using semi-structured interviews with the heads of the entities analyzed. The results reveal that daily news podcasts allow media outlets to improve their positioning by forming part of their audience’s routines, and create new revenue streams through sponsorships and brand agreements. Two editorial concepts have been identified: the in-depth analysis of a topic with support from the editorial department, and round-ups similar to radio news bulletins that cover the outlet’s informative key elements. The research also highlights audio initiatives by independent creators in specialized fields who shed light on the format’s potential for news narratives.