While many developed and developing countries are still suffering the negative impact of the global economic and financial crisis in terms of continuous slowdown of economic growth and high unemployment rates, the development of various sectors at international, regional and national levels seems to be still struggling.

In this current issue of the Journal of Economic Cooperation and Development – September 2016, six valuable articles have been selected that analyse global oil prices, the importance of labour productivity in the manufacturing sector, the relationship between government debt and economic growth, deforestation rates, social control in procurement, and bilateral trade and focus on trends in some Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman and Russia.

The first article examines and explores the sharp fluctuations in global oil prices and their associated impact on global economic imbalances which have contributed to the renewed debate among the policy makers regarding the nature and extent of these fluctuations. It also investigates the impact of oil prices on the small open economy of Oman.

The second article emphasizes that the improvement and strengthening of labour productivity has become an important approach to accelerate the growth of the manufacturing sector in Malaysia. It also attempts to analyse the impacts of the entry of foreign workers on the labour productivity of the manufacturing sector in Malaysia stressing the fact that the contribution of foreign labour on labour productivity is smaller compared to the local labour.

The third article investigates the real effect of government debt on Malaysia’s economy stating the fact that there is a long-run relationship between federal government debt and economic growth in Malaysia and that there is also an evidence of a non-linear relationship between the federal government debt and economic growth, which suggests the optimal level of debt that the government should hold.

The fourth article is meant to empirically demonstrate the inverse U-shaped relationship, which is generally called the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), between economic development and deforestation rate in Indonesia. Results support the long-run inverted-U relationship, which implies that, while the deforestation rate increases at the initial stage of economic growth, it declines after a threshold point.

The fifth article is a result of research on the effect of environment on the development of information system of social control in procurement. Informatization process of social relations largely determines how certain trends of social activity will be popular and durable. To determine the degree of maturity of information content on the theme of social control in procurement in Russia, the study also used the method of content analysis of information resources.

The sixth and last article sheds light on bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh which will be mutually beneficial to both countries and improve welfare as per trade theory. It also tries to forecast impact of trade between two countries considering the time period 1991-2014. By engaging in bilateral trade with India, Bangladeshi producers and suppliers ought to be concerned about attaining long term sustainability in their business, by improving quality of the products so that export can be raised in a competitive manner. This will help to promote and nurture bilateral trade relations, ensure sustainability of business and mutually benefit both the countries through free trade agreement.

Amb. Musa KULAKLIKAYA
Editor-in-chief

Articles of the Journal of Economic Cooperation and Development, Vol.37 No.3 (2016)