Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 2010 (vol. 18), issue 2

State-Run Investment Funds: Major Institutional Investors on Global Financial Markets

Petr Sedláček

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):3-22 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.297  

The article provides a basic description and taxonomy of sovereign wealth funds, rapidly gaining importance in the international monetary and financial systems. SFWs are pools of assets owned and managed directly or indirectly by governments to achieve specific objectives. Tentative estimates of foreign assets held by SWFs are between USD 1.9 trillion and USD 2.9 trillion. These amounts are about 10 times less than the assets under management of mature market institutional investors and modestly higher than those managed by hedge funds. Current IMF projections are that sovereign wealth funds will accumulate international assets under sovereign management...

Approaching Insolvency Proceedings in Practical Court Decisions

Tomáš Moravec

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):23-28 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.298  

The text deals with claimants approaching to insolvency proceedings in decisions by courts. It focuses on the application of the Civil Proceedings Act to insolvency proceedings, especially problems of approaching insolvency proceedings. It also reflects the incorrect application of law in the decision of insolvency courts and explains how to apply the Civil Proceedings Act and Insolvency Act properly.

Energy Policy of the Russian Federation

Jakub Kučera

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):29-51 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.299  

In this article, the author first sums up basic premises that the energy policy of the Russian Federation builds upon; then, using Russian politicians' and experts' statements, he shows how this policy is perceived in Russia these days. After that, he sums up briefly the extent and importance of the Russian raw-material base. He goes on to analyse particular targets that the energy policy pursues. He mainly focuses on economic targets (economic performance increase, state income increase, economic modernization) and foreign policy targets. Finally, the future development of Russian energy policy is sketched, especially of the Russian raw-material base.

Tajikistan's Economy in the Drug Trafficking Context

Hana Kavánková

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):52-63 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.300  

This paper deals with the issue of drug trafficking in Tajikistan, which is a serious socioeconomic obstacle to the country's economic growth. The author analyses the development and the reasons for the current situation since Tajikistan's independency in 1991, arguing that the unsatisfactory economic situation of the Tajik people has been caused mainly by the civil war in the 1990s and the malfunctioning institutional system. The result of the successive examination of the instruments and procedures that are applied in solving the problem of drug trafficking is used to identify possible improvements to the drug policy in Tajikistan as well as by international...

Media Relations with an Emphasis on Czech Practice

Miroslav Karlíček

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):64-72 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.301  

The study analyzes the fundamentals of effective Media Relations. The emphasis is on the specifics of the Czech environment. The study attempts to analyze the perspective of journalists and the corresponding perspective of organizations. Based on these assumptions, concrete guidelines for successful Media Relations are drawn. Due to the high competition on the current Czech "news market", information from most organizations typically attracts little attention from the media or even no attention at all. However, the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists is a partnership. When an organization respects the perspective of...

Comparison of Energy Policies in East Germany and Czechoslovakia at the Turn of the 1970s

Pavel Szobi

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):73-83 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.302  

The study focuses on solutions to energy problems in East Germany and Czechoslovakia within the limits of their own and Comecon primary sources. It analyzes the dependence on the oil and gas import from the Soviet Union and the differences in energy policies of the governments in Berlin and Prague. The work underlines the importance of brown coal reserves for the national economies of the countries in question and the difficulties building the fuel and energy bases in smaller European countries. It outlines the bias of the East German energy structure in contrast to the Czechoslovak efforts for stratification. In both countries, construction of nuclear...

The Role of Verbo-Nominal Structures in Business German

Věra Höppnerová

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2010, 18(2):84-87 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.303  

Verbo-nominal structures make up a considerable part of Business German: above all, business correspondence. Although they are sometimes refused in specialized literature, they have some advantages in comparison with their one-word equivalents: the core of the information - a plot or an activity - assume an important position in the sentence. By means of verbo-nominal structures, it is possible to express the process of a plot. They are syntactically simpler than their competitive forms in the passive voice and they upgrade specialized terms with the description of activities and actions specific to a given field.