Chinese high-tech foreign direct investments in the EU – trends and policy responses

The European Union and the Black Sea Economics Cooperation countries are geographical neighbors and important trade partners. Greece, Bulgaria and Romania have a cross-membership in both organizations. The paper analyzes trends and structure of trade relations of the EU and BSEC countries. The EU trade with the 12 BSEC countries is about 640 billion dollars. The BSEC countries with the EU membership or a custom union with the EU have more intra-industry trade with the EU than other BSEC countries. International tourism is an important component of the trade in services between the regions. Following the review of the factors of international tourism demand, a gravity model for tourism arrivals is presented. The model considers demand in the country of origin, international tourism capacities in destination countries and distance. The analysis helps to determine under-traded and competitive destinations in the BSEC countries for the EU travelers. Greece is the most efficient in attracting the EU tourists. Finally, country-specific differences in demand factors are considered.

Social network usage is a prerequisite for the functioning of companies and their competitiveness. The level, focus of their usage, and link with the company process are important. This research focuses on SMEs, how they use social networks, and how this affects their innovation potential. The study aims to determine the importance of social networks for SME’s competitiveness and long-term stability. To achieve this goal, 359 European SMEs were studied (2017–2019), two research questions and seven hypotheses were developed. Pearson’s correlation and stepwise regression were used, and the obtained results were verified by experimental testing. The research results showed that companies using social media as a main component of their business, are active at using modern technologies and are declaring the importance of social networks to develop innovation potential. Fastness and reliability of communication are crucial for business operations in the company. Social networks offer many opportunities and connections between strategic planning, controlling management, and performance level. All SMEs mostly use Facebook, and this does not depend on size, age or industry. The research results lead to the understanding that social networks and controlling-oriented management support SME business activities and their innovation potential and long-term stability in a hyper-competitive environment.

Acknowledgment
The paper has been prepared within the project “Risk Management in Industry 4.0” supported by the Specific University Research Funds of the University of Finance and Administration, Estonská 500, 101 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic. Funder ID: 04274644. 3. Award number: 7427/2019/02 IGA VŠFS.

The public finance management system is an important lever for equalizing financial and budgetary disproportions in the context of institutional changes. The paper aims to substantiate the directions of development of the public financial management system. Economic and statistical methods and correlation-regression analysis methods are used to determine the relationship between the GDP deflator and the share of revenues, expenditures, the general government budget deficit, and public debt in GDP, assessing the features of the public financial management system in Ukraine and EU countries. This study reveals that one of the main restraining factors in the public finance system development is a significant level of uncertainty in economic processes, which intensifies macroeconomic fluctuations, significant indicators of the share of public debt and budget deficit of the state administration sector pose risks to financial and economic stability; their potential negative impact on socio-economic processes is much more destructive than the pro-cyclical nature of fiscal policy. From this point of view, the public finance management system should be directed at optimizing financial and budgetary tools to prevent the growth of public debt and budget deficit in gross domestic product, which determines the importance of substantiating further development directions of the public financial management system. It is concluded that the mechanism of public financial management in recent years is quite rigid and restrictive, in the context of institutional change expands the tools of public financial management and increases its impact on socio-economic processes.