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Frontiers in East-West Business and
Emerging Markets |
Note of Thanks
Research
Seminar Series:
Frontiers in East-West Business & Emerging
Markets
(From the University of Toronto Newsletter)
Dear Colleagues:
I take the liberty of enclosing a description of the
Research Seminar Series I conducted in 1996/97.
Encouraged by the success, I intend to continue the
experience in 1997/98. Many thanks for your kind help
and/or interest. I wish you all the best for the Summer
and beyond.
Val Samonis.
The 1996/97 "Frontiers in East-West Business and
Emerging Markets" Research Seminar Series concluded
with a session on Russian transition and investment on
April 11. The seminars were held once a month from
November to April and featured speakers from Canada,
Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Lithuania, United
States, Japan and Austria. We asked Dr. Val Samonis to
reflect on the series' experience from his vantage point
of designer, creator and moderator:
In the East's Communist past, East-West business
relations tended to succumb to a rather well known
manic-depressive pattern of East-West relations in
general: periods of unrealistic hopes, even euphoria,
were invariably followed by periods of deep pessimism as
these hopes were dashed. The fall of Communism brought
new, unprecedented opportunities for both qualitative and
quantitative breakthroughs in East-West business
relations and business with emerging markets in general.
To take advantage of the new opportunities as we approach
the year 2000, the essential gaps in our knowledge of
these markets must be at least reduced if not eliminated.
It is evident that most current or prospective Western
business-people and analysts need guidance on the impact
of the changing emerging markets' environment on the
nature and parameters of their interaction with the new
international business partners. The seminar series
attempted to offer such guidance by way of addressing
some of the issues on the forefront of emerging markets
(frontiers) through presentations of relevant empirical
and
theoretical research findings of scholars from many
countries.The series generated wide interest and was well
attended by business people, government officials,
students, scholars, and the general public.
Moreover, I received a multitude of inquiries, requests
for
papers and collaboration proposals, etc, not only from
Canada but also U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
The individual sessions tackled such issues as
bankruptcies and enterprise restructuring in Central
Europe and the former Soviet Union(FSU), comparative
financial systems in emerging markets (stock markets,
banks, etc), transformation of trade and investment
relations in the FSU, comparative foreign direct
investment policies and their impact on emerging markets,
and Russia's transition to markets by the year 2000.
Research for papers presented in the various sessions was
conducted at and/or supported by a number of institutions
and individuals without whom the series would have been
impossible.
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Note of Thanks
Financial, logistical, and human support was provided by
The Center for Social & Economic Research, Warsaw
(Professor Lesze Balcerowicz, Director), The European
Union (ACE Program), Stanford University (Economic
Transition Group), The World Bank (Dr. Cheryl Gray, Team
Leader), The Soros Foundation, The International Academic
Priorities Fund (University of Toronto), The Mykulak
Scholarly Exchange Program with Ukraine, University of
Toronto (Professor Basil Kalymon, Director), York
University's Schulich School of Business (Professor
Savita Verma), Centre for Russian & East European
Studies, University of Toronto, The Government of Ontario
(Work-Study Program), The Economic Research
Centre,Vilnius (Dr. Gediminas Rainys, Director), The
Plekhanov Academy of Economics and The Delovaya Rossiya
Business Information Service, Moscow (Dr. Piotr
Shalimov), Harvard University (Project on Economic Reform
in Ukraine (Dr. David Snelbecker, Director), Kyiv
University (Professor Alex Rohach), International
Management Institute in Kyiv (Professor Alla Voronova),
Kyiv Polytechnical University (Professor Alla
Starostyna), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
(Professor Edgar Ortiz), University of Maine (Dr. Dennis
McConnell, Moderator, CEEMAN-L) and other institutions
and individuals from a number of countries. The speakers
and other contributors to the series are unfortunately
too numerous to name here - they all deserve my warmest
thanks.
Val Samonis.
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