Transitions to market economies from former planned ones, along with their opening-up, have forced significant restructuring of research and development (R&D) systems. This paper, focusing on the Central European economies, analyzes the process of restructuring industrial technologies. The main conclusions reached are the following. That these economies have been successful in absorbing foreign technology is evidenced by the rapid expansion of their high-tech exports and the wide diffusion of information technology. The recently reduced levels of R&D in these economies are not significantly low in comparison to the other OECD economies after controlling for differences of economic fundamentals. While foreign direct investment might have a negative effect in the long-run on the level of R&D, these economies can bolster their levels at least until domestic firms build up an efficient corporate system. Finally, the efficiency of R&D in these economies in terms of patent counts is significantly low; suggesting that these R&D systems are far from being globally competitive.

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It is well known that Russia's ongoing transition process in the past decade has shown some singularities or peculiarities. Favorable developments in 1999-2001 have enabled the Russian government to succeed in reducing markedly non-monetary transactions and to generate budgetary surpluses. However, such phenomena as the substantial "hollowing-out of industrial production" and the "enlargement of the trade sector" can still be observed in the domestic economy. In a period of growing economic globalization, Russia's integration into international capital markets can be still characterized by two unfavorable factors: the relatively minor inflow of foreign direct investment and enormous capital flight. One of the key sectors linking the peculiarities of the domestic market with those of international markets is that of trade (commerce), which currently plays an important role in Russia's transformation to a service economy. This paper enunciates my attempts to clarify these peculiarities of Russia's marketization process by analyzing Russia's trade-margin trends based on updated trade-margin matrix data of the input-output system.

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The Russian oil and gas industries have performed very well recently. However, some tasks have to be accomplished in order to ensure further development. The oil industry must continue to invest in both upstream and downstream areas, and to drive forward oil export projects directed to Asian markets. The gas industry must both enhance profitability in the domestic market, and drive forward gas export projects directed to Asian markets. For this it is necessary for Russian oil and gas companies to strengthen their competitiveness. It is also necessary for the Russian government to put in place a legal framework enabling foreign capital to be introduced.

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Under a process of economic transition, a nation's industrial structure changes. It can be said that this is the process of adjustment to market needs from an old industrial structure that was created under the artificial economic policies of communism.
In this paper, the change of Poland's industrial structure is discussed at both macro and micro levels. The textile and the iron and steel industries have been chosen as examples to show changes in internal production systems. The factors that brought about the changes are discussed from the viewpoint of international trade, the emerging new businesses and foreign direct investments. Finally, a personal view regarding the on-going industrial structural changes in Poland is presented.

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We first examine how the industrial structure of Romania has changed or not in the 1990's by using input-output tables, and show how the foreign trade structure has also changed. We then consider the relationship between those changes in the industrial and foreign trade structures. Finally, we propose that the Romanian government should elaborate and enforce an industrial policy that creates an industrial structure enabling export competitiveness.

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The structural changes in the Chinese economy are analyzed from the viewpoints of marketization, industrialization, and globalization, by using macro economic data. The main findings are as follows. There has been a sharp reduction of the state owned sector's shares in investments in fixed assets over the last two decades, resulting in a decrease in the numbers of workers employed by the State in urban areas, and in the State's share of gross industrial product value. Thus, we may conclude that the Chinese economy has made great progress towards marketization. Second, the structural changes in China's economy has basically followed Petty-Clark rule, but due to the influence of a heavy handed industrial policy during the central planning era, the level of the employment structure is much lower than that of the industrial one where it is difficult to dismiss workers. Third, rapid economic growth was accompanied with economic globalization. Fourth, a dual economic structure still exists in China. Structural problems such as the surplus employment in agriculture→low labor productivity→farmers' low income, are becoming more serious. The dual structure has basically resulted from institutional discrimination. Fifth, structural change in manufacturing that has led to rapid economic growth in the last two decades has occurred only to a limited extent, but the tempo of the change has become more rapidly recently. Sixth, the scale of the expansion and the structural upgrade of China's trade have been realized simultaneously. Primary exports, which had played a key role, have been substituted by manufactured goods since the end of the 20th Century.

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Poland introduced a drastic pension reform in 1999, because the growth of the number of pensioners threatened the state budget. It's first characteristic is the adoption of reserve financial scheme in the Polish pension system. The second characteristic is the establishment of private financial companies, which manage the reserve fund of pension system. The third characteristic is the formation of independent pension union in each enterprise. Since the transformation of pension system into the reserve financial scheme is a quite difficult task, the younger generation has to participate in the old pension system partially as well as the new pension system.

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