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China's new leaders have set for themselves the goals of increasing political power of business leaders, while at the same time working to protect disadvantaged workers.

The European Union's (EU) intergovernmental conference was convened in 1996 to discuss the creation of a flexible union of up to 26 members, including 10 ex-communist nations. The year-long review is reaching its conclusion and its findings will have relevance for the business community. Institutional reform is of strong interest to businesses, particularly the move to simplify often unworkable and incomprehensible EU legislation. The UK's new Labour government is likely to move the nation into the mainstream of Europe and cooperate with closer European integration.

The power structure in governments has shifted. Lobbying has been given a new importance to business 'SOME OF MY best friends are lobbyists, but I would not want my son [...]

Power and influence play significant roles in organizations. Training and development specialists need to recognize the importance of power and how to use it in order to get things done. Although the training and development functions have the ability to solve problems, they are limited by lack of centrality and substitutability. Specialists need to learn how to acquire and use power in the right context. A strategy that details dependency, proper use of resources, centrality, substitutability and uncertainty needs to be developed in order to ensure a cost-effective and efficient organization.

The relationships among business, politics and politicians are not well understood and some important parts of them are not very visible. Since our economy is a mixture of public and [...]

The Man Who Would Be Premier With a more pragmatic approach and policies that favour government intervention as a last resort. Roy Romanow stands ready to become Saskatchewan's next premier. [...]

Indonesia has tackled its economic problems by reducing tariffs and removing many of the monopolies which existed. This should have reduced prices and increased competition. However, the price of sugar remains at 58% above the world average price because this allows the government to subsidize the price of rice. However, there are also many vested interests in keeping the price high. President Suharto needs to remove more monopolies and actively begin deregulation if inflation is to be kept under control. This may be difficult because it will adversely affect many of his own family.

Japan's Keidanren has lost its former formidable political and business clout. Keidanren refers to the Federation of Economic Organizations formed in 1946 to link big industries with the government. The group is composed of powerful figures from the business, government and political sectors. Time was when the successful men of Keidanren were closely bonded by their desire to bring about full-blown industrial development in Japan. Today, however, Keidanren's members are divided by varied interests which have considerably weakened the federation's political influence.

The UK and social policy At one level it could be argued that what the eleven other Member States of the Community have done is to leave it to the [...]

The European industry lobby, UNICE, is urging the EU summit in Brussels this week to adopt the European Commission's proposals on enlargement 'taking account of comments made by European business'. [...]

The energy directorate of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is the exception that proves the rule: it looks set to be largely unchanged despite wide-ranging plans to reform [...]

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SAD C) are agreed that dialogue on the question of land redistribution in the region is urgent and necessary between all stakeholders. Community [...]

The riot-hit G8 summit in Genoa at the weekend held as stark a message for multinational companies as it did for the leaders of the Group of Eight nations. That [...]

The Netherlands' dual role as trading nation and seat of international law gives it a unique position on the world stage. Catherine Richards reports on Dutch involvement in the commerce [...]

New Labour formed a new kind of relationship with business. Why is it turning sour? THE affair has conformed to all the rules of soap opera. First, an attraction of [...]

Offline NEW YORK WITH the Internet currently displacing motherhood and apple pie at the top of the list of American virtues, proposals to tax the net are not popular. Presidential [...]

A new corporatism In the second of our series of articles on Britain's new establishment we look at the close ties forged between the Blair government and big business CERTAIN [...]

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, DC As a political force, business in America seems curiously mute and fragmented. Will Silicon Valley make a difference? SOMETHING odd happened in Washington, DC, earlier [...]

Europe's politicians are getting in the way of industrial restructuring WHEN Olivetti pulled off Europe's biggest hostile takeover on May 21st by winning 51% of the shares in Telecom Italia, [...]

For decades, 77 year old German-born Stef Wertheimer has been preaching in Israeli government officials of the need to convert Israel's economy into a more export-oriented one--which thrives on entrepreneurial [...]

WASHINGTON -- The lobbyists who ply their trade for entertainment companies are biting their nails over the upcoming national election. The possibility of the Democrats gaining a majority in the [...]

A different kind of company exhibition! Recently the senior boss of our lil' ole factory heard that another lil' ole factory had staged a highly successful company exhibition. Furthermore it [...]

Thanks to the International Monetary Fund's assistance, the South Korean economy is recovering but politics is beginning to resurface and this threatens to undermine the country's gains. South Korea's President Kim Dae-Jung should press for his promised reforms in the corporate, financial, public and labor sectors.

The Korean Development Institute has recommended that the government reduce expenditures to fight the threat of inflation. Although Korea's economy is growing, it is also unstable.