Trade and investment in natural mineral resources hold great potential for generating income, growth and prosperity, sustaining livelihoods and fostering local development. However, a large share of these resources is located in conflict-affected and high-risk areas. In these areas, exploitation...

RFID touches on several regulatory and/or policy issues with potentially wide-ranging social, economic, as well as national security implications, including international trade, intellectual property rights, standards, spectrum, security, and privacy.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a promising new technology with a rapidly growing range of applications, many integrating technologies such as sensors. In this report, eight major fields of application are analysed, impacts are discussed and country initiatives described.

The expanding geographical sweep of supply chains reflects important advances in the area of logistics management. Some of these advances are linked to progress in computing, telecommunications and robotics technologies as well as to the accumulation of management expertise. Managers have...

While defining appropriate roles for political advisers is a highly relevant topic in most democracies and especially in EU NMS, as well as candidate and CARDS countries today, surprisingly little comparative information exists. To fill this gap, in Autumn 2005, the Sigma Programme launched a...