Revista de Economie Mondiala/ Journal of Global Economics

1-34

Authors: Sarmiza Pencea

Clusters are complex economic structures in which similar companies, their up-stream and down-stream business partners, universities, research institutes, educational units, various service providers, diverse private and public institutions concentrate geografically, striving to get economies of agglomeration and scale, to capitalize on the resulting spill over effects, to cut costs, to better harness resources, to exchange information and experience, to improve quality, innovation, skills and productivity. By somehow unexpectedly combining competition and cooperation, they form a new, sophisticated stage in the evolution of production structures in quest of higher efficiency. This paper forays into the world of clusters and clusterization, which seem to increasingly capture the interest of businesses, scholars and policy makers. It looks at what clusters are, how they arise, what are their specific features, what benefits and challenges they can generate for companies and for the regions in which they locate and if and how they should be fostered by industrial policy interventions. The conclusion is that clusters can be very important development triggers and therefore they should be encouraged and nurtured by adequate policy measures. They should not only be used as a regular policy tool, but be placed at the very center of the development strategies of emerging economies.

46-47

Authors: Virginia Câmpeanu, Iulia Monica Oehler-Șincai, Andreea Drăgoi

The present paper has as main objective the analysis of the opportunities and development perspectives of the trade relationship between Romania and the Russian Federation, linked to the latest evolutions of the European and global economic context. Keeping in mind this objective, our paper is structured around three main sections, as follows. The first part, “Economic Context of Romania-Russian Federation Trade Development” is centered upon the global crisis and its effects on the EU, Romania and Russia as well as the EU-Russia increasing bilateral merchandise trade flows. We examine how the global economic crisis interrupted increasing merchandise trade between EU-27 and the Russian Federation and present the main exporter countries from the EU-27 to Russia and the major EU importers from Russia and analyze in a comparative manner the very concentrated trade pattern between EU-27 and Russia. In the next section, “Romania-Russia Trade Development”, we underline that the Russian Federation is the second extra-EU trading partner of our country. We explore Romania’s trade relationship with Russia during pre and post accession to the European Union and also the actual trends of the bilateral trade, which pattern is extremely concentrated. In the last section, “Opportunities and Prospects for the Trade Development between Romania and Russian Federation”, we conclude, on the basis of the comparative and prospective analysis, that: Romania could be well positioned on Russian markets; there are many similarities in competitiveness characteristics of our countries; Romania and Russia have some problematic factors in doing business; strong points of the Romanian manufacturing industry could lead to the diversification of trade pattern and, finally, Romania has the possibility to develop a strong economic partnership with the Russian Federation under the framework of the EU-Russia relationship.