Abstract

The authors analyze the links between Russias disappointing growth performance in the second half of the 1990s, its costly and unsuccessful stabilization, the macroeconomic meltdown of 1998, and the spectacular rise of non-payments. Non-payments flourished in an environment of fundamental inconsistency between a macroeconomic policy geared at sharp disinflation, and a microeconomic policy of bailing enterprises out through soft budget constraints. Heavy untargeted implicit subsidies flowing through the non-payments system (amounting to 10 percent of GDP annually) have stifled growth, contributed to the August 1998 meltdown, through their impact on public debt, and have made at best a questionable contribution to equity. Dismantling this system must be a top priority, along with promoting enterprise restructuring and growth (by hardening budget constraints) and medium-term macroeconomic stability (by reducing the size of subsidies). Getting the government out of the non-payments system means settling all appropriately controlled budgetary expenditures on time, and in cash, and eschewing spending arrears, thereby setting an example for enterprises, and laying the groundwork for eliminating tax offsets at all levels of government, and insisting on cash tax payments. To stop energy-related subsidies, would require not only that the government pay its own energy bills on time, and in cash, but also that the energy monopolies be empowered to disconnect non-paying clients. This will enable the government to insist that the energy monopolies in turn pay their own taxes in full, and on time. Document type: Book

Abstract

The following are discussed: each of the three candidate industries (preserved fruits and vegetables, sugar and confectionary products, and chemicals) and how they were chosen; other industries that might use geothermal brine in their evaporation/crystallization operations; contacts made with people in these industries, and with manufacturers of evaporators and crystallizers; modifications made in the evaporator heat and material balance computer program; and work being done on well/pipeline economics and the information available for this analysis. (MHR) Document type: Report

Abstract

The chemical industry in Tarragona is one of the main economic engines of the country. It generates stable and quality employment, directly and indirectly employing 11,000 people and generating up to 35,000 induced jobs. The production of the Tarragona chemical complex represents 25% of Spanish chemical production and 50% of Catalan chemical production, and accounts for 70% of the movements of the Port of Tarragona. The chemical sector represents 20% of Catalonia's total exports.

The companies associated with the AEQT are firmly committed to sustainability and therefore aspire to a circular and carbon neutral future, the driving force behind the activity of the chemical complex in Tarragona, the most important in southern Europe.

The great challenge for the future is to maintain competitiveness in a global economy in full energy transition, specialization will be the added value of our products, local talent and the environment of knowledge and research, the best asset.