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The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration, one of the world's four largest bay area urban agglomerations, occupies an important position in China's national development. In this paper, the expansion hotspot model, an urbanization index, a gravitation model, and a socioeconomic location model are used to explore changes in the characteristics of the urban agglomeration in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. The research results can provide decision support for government urban agglomeration planning. The research reveals the following. (1) In the skeleton maps of the expansion hotspots in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, Jiangmen shows an irregular shape, Shenzhen shows an irregular H-shape, Dongguan and Hong Kong show a shape somewhat between a circle and a star, Zhongshan shows a gourd-shape, and Guangzhou, Foshan, Huizhou, Zhaoqing, and Zhuhai show a polygon shape. (2) In 2000, 2010, and 2018, the urbanization index for the urban agglomerations were 41.78%, 50.87%, and 54.41%, respectively. The level of economic development, household registration policy, and urban planning are important factors affecting the development of urbanization. (3) The city quality and spatial connection strength of urban agglomeration have significant spatial nonequilibrium distribution characteristics. The total city quality of Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou accounted for more than 41.5% of the total city quality of the city cluster at the same time, and that of the east coast of the Pearl River is much stronger than the west coast. (4) There are "faults" in the socioeconomic location of the 11 cities in the urban agglomeration, with significant polarization. The socioeconomic locations of Jiangmen, Huizhou, and Zhaoqing have been below the reasonable socioeconomic location range in the past 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warnings that a breakdown in multilateral trade liberalization would bring about an upsurge in protectionist sentiment, the possible collapse of the multilateral trading system and, in the most doomsday of scenarios, the fragmentation of the global economy have been an intrinsic part of trade negotiations since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was first negotiated. What is seldom acknowledged, however, is the role that this language of crisis and collapse--what might be called a 'crisis discourse' --has had on framing trade negotiations and in maintaining forward momentum in the liberalization process. This discourse has played a role in facilitating the kind of institutional development that the GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO) has undergone--helping to push through bargains among GATT contracting parties and WTO members that have been (and remain) deeply asymmetrical--and driving the trade agenda forward at moments when the institution appears deadlocked; and it has continued to play a role in the current round of negotiations. The aims of the paper are twofold. First, the paper explores the content of the crisis discourse. Second, it examines the way in which the discourse has been deployed as a means of reframing trade negotiations in such a way that the likelihood of their continuation and ultimate conclusion increases. The paper does this by focusing on the collapse and resumption of the negotiations in the wake of the WTO's 2005 Hong Kong ministerial meeting, though the crisis discourse and its intensification at moments of intransigence has been a key feature of trade negotiations since the Allies first sat down to develop a trade architecture in the wartime and early post-war years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spectacular economic success of the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICS) of Asia since the 1960s, has led to the quest to identify other less developed countries which may be just about to become the next NICS of Asia. This paper examines the arguments for and against the view that there is a "second tier" of less developed countries which are about to join the ranks of the Asian NICS. While Malaysia and Thailand are generally thought to be the most likely candidates, this paper argues that one hitherto unrecognised contender. China, is likely to join these countries in achieving NIC status. This paper examines the question of whether there are likely to be more Newly Industrializing Countries (NICS) emerging over time, following in the footsteps of the original four in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan). While some writers suggest that several developing countries are about to achieve NIC status in the near future, others argue that world trading conditions have deteriorated to such an extent as to make this very unlikely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hong Kong is the top food safety city in China. It is a large consumer-oriented city, with more than 95% of the food imported from abroad. The overall food safety rate has been 99.7% for the past 6 years. This paper discusses food safety assurance system in Hong Kong, specifically the food safety status of Hong Kong, its food safety regulation agencies and food safety assurance systems. The food safety assurance systems in Hong Kong developed to protect consumers could benefit China as a whole and other developing countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Developing countries are increasingly facilitating migration as a way of generating remittances for the home economy. The Philippines serves as a paradigmatic example, inaugurating a labour export scheme in 1973 that has grown each year and resulted in nearly 25 per cent of the labour force working abroad. The institutionalization of this labour export policy, along with changes in citizenship and voting laws, has led to the increasing deterritorialization of the Philippines state, with concomitant implications for democracy and democratization. This deterritorialization presents both opportunities and challenges for the state. Among them are the possibility of securing sustained remittances and the necessity of securing democratic legitimacy from a globalized polity. This paper traces the evolution of this labour export policy and analyzes the effects of state discursive strategies designed to secure democratic legitimacy. To further this analysis I present the results of a survey conducted among Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong (n=691). The responses indicate the discursive strategy of 'national heroes' has been effective in that majorities of OFWs view themselves as 'heroes of the nation.' However, OFWs also view themselves as making sacrifices for the nation and have concerns about government commitments to protect the rights and interests of OFWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Solar energy technologies can play an important role in meeting the ultimate goal of replacing fossil fuels to generate inexhaustible, clean and safe energy. The availability of more comprehensive solar radiation data is invaluable for the design and evaluation of solar-based conversion systems. In many places of the world, particularly the developing countries, the basic solar radiation data for the surfaces of interests are not readily obtainable. This paper presents an approach to estimate the annual global solar radiation on various inclined planes facing different orientations based on measured sunshine hours. Solar radiation and sunshine hours data recorded in 2004 were used for the model development. The performance of the proposed model was assessed against data measured in 2005. It is shown that the solar radiations estimated by the proposed method are in good agreements with the measured data and the peak difference was found less than 5.2%. The predictive ability and the simplicity nature of the model provide a reliable and convenient alternative for estimating inclined solar radiation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]