Conference Diary

International Infrastructure Projects
June 8-9, 1995, Central Park South, New York, USA

Highlights of this conference included project financing in Asia, Latin America, and Russia and tapping the capital markets for infrastructure finance.
Information: American Conference Institute, 175-Fifth Avenue, Suite 2182, New York, New York 10010, USA, tel. (416) 926-8200, fax (416) 927-1563.

Poland 1995: Crossroad of Opportunities
June 19, 1995, New York, USA

A one-day conference presented and hosted by the U.S.-Poland Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan New York. Topics included: Changing role of commercial banks in post-London Agreement Poland; Transition of the financial market for capital, institutional, and equity investments; Resources and operations of multilateral and U.S. organizations and the mass privatization program—emerging opportunities for investments.
Information: U.S.-Poland Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan New York, 812 N. Wood Avenue, Suite 204, Linden, New Jersey, 07036, USA, tel. (908) 486-9311, fax (908) 486-4084.

Russia: A New Era for Business, Finance and Investment
July 6-7, 1995, Moscow, Russia

Conference sponsored by Euromoney and Bank Austria, Linklaters & Paines, focusing on sectoral opportunities in the Russian market; energy and infrastructure finance; development of capital markets; and privatization. Participants include both foreign investors and Russian corporations. Information: Conference Department, Euromoney Publications PLC, Nestor House, Playhouse Yard, London, EC4V 5EX, U.K., tel. (44171) 779-8366, fax (44171) 779-8835.

Hydropower Projects in Emerging Markets
September 11-13, 1995, New York, USA

Conference will analyze international hydropower deals, with emphasis on how to develop an efficient structure, help manage multiple sources of risk, and bring together partners. Discussions will touch upon criteria that determine the greatest profit opportunities for hydropower project development: tapping new and alternative funding sources; determining the ownership structure for a hydropower project; implementing the optimal strategies for managing currency; bundling smaller hydro projects for total package financing; and identifying the best models in hydro privatization and revitalization.
Information: Conference Holdings, Inc., 70 Blanchard Road, Suite 4800, Burlington, MA 01803, USA, tel. 1-800-767-9499 or, outside the U.S., (617) 270-6200.

Cleanup of Manufactured Gas Plants
September 19-21, 1995, Prague, Czech Republic

International symposium and trade fair, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, Electric Power Research Institute, Czech Technical University, Gas Research Institute, SGS Environment, Umweltbundesamt, NATO's Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, Edison Electric Institute, Technical University of Budapest, Florida State University, Woodward-Clyde, and EPP Publications. The symposium focuses on: Site characterization and investigation; Monitoring and field screening technologies; Soil remediation technologies; Groundwater remediation technologies; and Waste reuse, recycling, and minimization. Information: MGP '95 Symposium, Florida State University, 2035 East Paul Dirac Drive, 226 HMB, Tallahassee, Florida, 32310, USA, tel. (904) 644-5524, fax (904) 574-6704, (Email: MGP95@mailer.fsu.edu.)

Social Relations and Social Policy under Conditions of Market Economy: Russia and World Experience
September 24-27, 1995, Moscow, Russia

Sponsored by the Institute for Employment Studies and Socio-Economic Research Association. Topics to be discussed include: Types of social policy; Redistribution of power and property; Social guarantees and social responsibility; the Social orientation of an economy and criteria of economic expediency; Psychological aspects of forming a market economy in Russia; Confrontation in the sphere of social-labor relations and problems of public consensus; Social stratification in countries with a market economy; and Prognosis for the social structure of Russian society.
Information: Dr. Dulnara Sorocoumova, conference coordinator, Institute for Employment Studies, Malaya Lubyanka Str. 16, 10100, Moscow, Russia, tel./fax (095) 928-8319, (Email: comm-pub@comlab.vega.msk.su.)

Transforming Economies and Societies: Towards an Institutional Theory of Economic Change
October 19-21, 1995, Cracow, Poland

Organized by the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) and the Cracow Academy of Economics. Keynote speakers include: Professor D. Mario Nuti, London Business School, United Kingdom; Professor Grzegorz W. Kolodko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Polish Government and Minister of Finance; Professor Carlo Poni, University of Bologna, Italy; and Professor Philip Mirowski, University of Notre Dame.
Information: Klaus Nielsen, EAEPE conference organizer, Roskilde University Centre, Box 360, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark, tel. (4546)757-711, fax (4546) 756-618, or Jerzy Hausner, Cracow Academy of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Krakow, Poland, tel. (4812) 167-731, fax (4812) 226-919.

Energy Situation in the Eastern European Countries
November 6, 1995, Zittau, Germany

5th Zittauer Seminar, organized by the Fachhochschule fuer Technik, Wirtschaft und Sozialwesen. Information: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Riesner, Fachhochschule fuer Technik, Wirtschaft und Sozialwesen, Zittau/Goerlitz, Theodor-Koerner-Allee 16, D-02763 Zittau, tel. (49-3583) 614-13, fax (49-3583) 510-626.

Marketing Strategies for Central and Eastern Europe
November 30-December 1, 1995, Austria

Annual conference of the Kellstadt Center for Marketing Analysis and Planning, DePaul University-Chicago, and the Department of International Business Administration, University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna.

The conference will promote dialogue between decisionmakers and business and government leaders from Central and Eastern Europe and Western industrial countries, presenting information about the economic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, and stimulation of entrepreneurial activity. The key question: How can marketing concepts be adapted for the cultivation of markets in economies undergoing transition?
Information: Professor Dr. Reiner Springer, Wirtschaftsuniversitat, Wien Althanstr. 51, 1090 Wien, Austria, tel. 43-1-313 36/4371, fax 43-1-313 36/751, (Email: springer@isis.wu-wien.ac.at), or Professor Dr. Petr Chadraba, Kellstadt Center for Marketing Analysis and Planning, DePaul University, 1 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604, USA, tel. (312) 362-6200, fax (312) 362-5647, (Email: pcha drab@wppost.de-paul.edu.)

Privatization of Welfare Systems: Strategies and Policies
March 1-2, 1996, Trento, Italy

The European Association for Comparative Economic Studies will hold its sixth Trento workshop in cooperation with the Department of Economics of the University of Trento, Italy. The workshop will focus on defining the rules governing private supply; creating more suitable organizational forms of the for-profit firm in order to handle the problem of information asymmetry; promoting the voluntary supply of services of collective interest by fiscal means; and adopting a policy designed to develop private supply, whether for profit or otherwise.

Papers are called for in the following areas: theoretical analysis of the privatization of welfare systems; concrete models of welfare system privatization; analysis of policies promoting private supply; size, evolution, and features of the nonprofit sector and implications for policies for the privatization of welfare systems; and the consequences of welfare privatization on public spending, the level of welfare, and employment. Analyses of selected micro case studies are particularly welcome. Authors must be members of EACES and submit a two-page abstract in triplicate by September 16, 1995. Information: Bruno Dallago, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Via Inama 1, 38100 Trento, Italy, tel. (39461) 882-211, fax (39461) 882-222.