Management Accounting - balance sheet and cost reduction - Assignment Example From the indexes given the cost of labour has increased over the years while the price of their products also tends to increase over the years, therefore the increase in the cost of labour has led to an increase in prices. The cost of direct materials has increased over the years meaning that this could have caused the increase in the cost of production for a unit. On the other hand retail prices have increased over the years as indicated by the retail price index. b) An indication of the possible areas of weaknesses in the material, labour and overhead costing and control practices and procedures used in the factory of the company. In addition, you should comment on any other areas you consider to be significant. Job order costing is used where each job is unique and requires special attention, therefore this is the best method to be used by Sidcup limited because each order is different in production, the problem faced by this company is that the determination of cost of labour used and materials used, the method used is inappropriate. Sidcup estimates material costs using the cost from the previous year which is very wrong because their costs may increase or decrease during the year, therefore the company should adopt one of the material cost estimation methods. (Pizzey A (1989)) Direct labour cost estimation is also not approp... Last in last out- this means that costs of materials used will be determined by the cost of those that came in last. Average method- this means that the cost of materials used will be determined by an averaged cost of the materials. Specific identification this means that materials cost will be determined by the specific cost of those used in production. Sidcup estimates material costs using the cost from the previous year which is very wrong because their costs may increase or decrease during the year, therefore the company should adopt one of the material cost estimation methods. (Pizzey A (1989)) Direct labour cost estimation is also not appropriate, the cost of labour used is that determined at the beginning of the year using the previous year expenses. The company should adopt direct labour cost estimation methods which will use labour hours and cost per hour to determine labour costs. The company has no budget for any year, the company therefore should budget prepare sales budgets, production budgets, direct material usage budgets and direct material budgets in order to aid in planning and coordination of activities in the organisation. According to the components of the costs of production given below, the cost of labour is higher than any other cost; therefore they use a labour intensive method of production. The cost of production can be brought down through the adoption of a capital intensive means of production where the machines do a lot of the work. Machines will also increase their production capacity and this will lead to economies of scale where the total overheads will be distributed to a large number of units produced.
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Increasing the duration of copyright in literary works in the United Kingdom in 1995 from life of the author plus 50 years to li - Essay Example One of the most critical issues regarding intellectual properties is the extension of copyright protection period that had remained at 50 years past the creator’s death for a few several centuries.3 By this definition, the rights are universally protected; however, the term of protection is not indefinite except for a few special works. Nevertheless, the contention of this paper has little to do with the definition and more to do with the amount of time for which the protection is supplied, in the UK; copyrights are protected but the Copyright and Design act of 1988 based on the 2003 amendments by the copyright and related regulations. Over the years, the UK has faces several challenges in related to copyright owing to the number of sometimes contradictory directives by other European countries as well as international proposal. This is in spite of the Berne convention of 1886, which set a minimum standard of protection among the countries participating in the same, later in 1905 the convention, set the minimum period of 50 years after the death of the creator. However, despite the relatively steep number of years, given many countries have often increased instead of making effort to reduce them and this trend eventually lead up to the latest EC duration.4 Nevertheless, there is serious doubt about whether this increase serves the interest of the public or is as advantageous to the owner of the work as the EC may want to allege5;6. According to the EC duration preamble, the reasons for the increase are categorized as legal, social political and economic issues; however, an objective examination of these reasons however is enough to prove otherwise. Despite the overtly logical basis on which they are grounded, none of them stand in the face of critical scrutiny. The core interest of this paper is to discuss in particular the 1993 change in which the copyright protection was extended and provides evidence through a critical examination of the reason given for the fact that the mover was ill guided, in a word, a mistake. Background The background of copyright can be traced back to the 18th century and although the rules by then were nowhere near the current ones in terms of latitude and legal requirements7, the have successfully set precedent for posterity which have led to the current laws. The first copyright statute was the statute of Ann and this is the first document that recognised the author and provided a limited term of copyright of 28 years, this was first enacted in the Donaldson and Becket case in 1774. In this case, copyright was established and the original laws were supposed to protect the investment by printers and publishers as opposed to those of the authors. In-fact it was only in the 19th century that their creative genius was recognised and the creation of works become author centred as opposed to publisher and printer centred.8 One of the landmarks in the history of the copyright law in the UK was
12/16/2019 0 Comments Challenges Faced by Malaysia in Its Journey Towards a High Income Nation at 20201. Introduction The prime minister Najib Tun Razak, on 2 may 2010, announced his new program named as New Economic Model (NEM) to make Malaysia a “developed†and “high income†country at 2020. To be more specific the main target is to increase the per capita income to 17,700 USD from 7558 UDS by 2020. But what are the problems for the Malaysia in this way to become a developed and high-income nation? 1- The Economic Transformation And Need For New Institutions: In the past years, Malaysia has used a growth model to become a middle-income country. Now, it has decided to become a high-income country.
So, they growth model has to be changed to another model to guarantee the goal of becoming a high-income country. In this way, Malaysia has to perform its economic transformation plan, develop, and engender the organizations and institutions needed for this transformation. 2- Unity and Coalition of the Nation and Government: Malaysia as it is known for being the truly Asia, its population is comprised of various ethnics, with various cultures, religions and wants. One group wants to have a pragmatic perspective to the economic and politic issues, another want to have an ideological perspective. More than 50% of the population is Muslim with Islamic views and having the government power. On the other hand, about 30% of the population is Chinese with an economic power and having a strong presence in the market, which most of them are Christians or Buddhists. But we know that to reach to big goals a unity between this ethnics and coalition in the politics and economy, in addition stability in the policies and regulations, and the perspective of the nation and government toward the economy, policy and international issues is very vital and important. In fact, the Malaysia people need to rally together as a nation to embrace change, be adaptive to today’s environment and increasingly globalized and rapidly changing world. 3- Politics and Opposition Groups: Today, it seems that opposition groups raised from inside of Muslim population have an increasing presence in the policy. However, they do not have the control of government but they are planning to do that. They are pretty popular in the society and also they have taken the majority of benches of Parliament in some of states. The transformation of power between the current politicians and the oppositions is not problematic itself, but the problems are due to that the oppositions groups, and specifically their leader Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim are not agree with New Economic Model (NEM) introduced by the prime minister Najib Tun Razak. They criticize the NEM and do not believe on it. So if in the future the opposition groups become more powerful and take the government there can make significant changes in the policy and economic plans. The instability in the policy and economic planning could be perilous for the Malaysia Vision 2020. 4- Malaysia, an Open and Small Economy: Malaysia is country with an open and small economy. However, it had been prosperous to obtain its goals in the past, but it also needs to consider its limitations, as it is considered wisely by the decision makers. The population is not very large with only 28 million people; the natural resources are not very rich in all of cases and the country in not a very vast country like USA, China or Russia. Therefore, it is very important for Malaysia to concentrate on its advantages and opportunities. I believe Malaysia has to develop competitive niches integrated into global value chain. This means being really good at what it produces. Malaysia needs to emphasize more on the specific niches and and at the same time be a part of a bigger value chain. 5- Development of Malaysia’s Intangible Assets: Both the NEM and 10 MP (10th Malaysia plan), emphasize on the development of intangible assets. The Schumpeterian economic model that Malaysia has targeted on to transform from a middle-income to high-income nation rests on the quality of intangible assets. Quality of human capitals, innovation and creativity, institutions and the social capitals are important for quality of intangible assets. 6- Value Added Economic Activities Instead of Labour-intensive Industries: A higher-income nation means higher wages for workers. And higher wages for workers means less competiveness in attracting foreign investors. Based on the central bank annual report for the 2010 “the emergence of lower-cost competitors in the region, notably China, Indonesia and Vietnam, has affected Malaysia’s competitive advantage in labour-intensive industries, in this regard foreign investment received in recent years have shifted towards higher value-added economic activitiesâ€. So, it seems that the only way for the Malaysia is to do more efforts to empower the industries with higher value added. On the other hand because higher value added industries must have more research activities, more high quality of human capitals. Innovation and creativity extremely is based on the research and quality of human capital. And the human capital and research are products of high quality universities. in my opinion malaysia in on the right track to develop research universities which are more envolved in the creative and innovative research activities, but on the other hand there some problems in the composition of students in the malaysian universities. that is discussed in the next point. 7- First Class Universities to Reduce Brain Drain and Keep the Researchers (Specifically, Natives) After Graduation in the Country: However, it seems that Malaysia is very serious in developing the research universities, but today Malaysia is a destination for students of other developing countries, specifically Muslim countries. Though a large number of students in the high quality universities are foreigners and specifically in the graduate and postgraduate levels. However, presence of international student specially has some financial benefits for these universities and in addition can boost the research activities and research project defined under educational programs, but it have some disadvantages too. To clarify more, when these international student finish their programs most of them are reluctant to stay more in Malaysia, so they go back to their home countries or transfer to some western or other developed countries. It means that Malaysia still is nurturing researcher to send them to developed countries (the same problem is in other developing countries). While, usually fresh researcher and graduates must be employed in the innovative and creative companies that produce high value-added products. However, developed countries always have their attractiveness for the highly educated people, but generally the native graduates are less willing to leave their home country (if they can educate in first class universities with a high salary base after graduation) than international student which come to Malaysia to transfer to another country or go back to their home countries. Therefore, it is a key factor to develop the Malaysian universities to the first class universities to reduce the brain drain phenomena in the Malaysia and provide the creative and innovative industries with rich resources of high-quality human capitals. In fact, the human capital is the backbone for each creative and innovative firm and without that, they can do nothing. We can deduce Malaysian universities’ performance has a significant effect to reach the 2020 vision. 8- Sustainability through Branding by Domestic Investors: Today Malaysia is a destination of foreign investments. While mostly foreign investors are international companies that look for a cheap work force, they choose the low-cost countries to establish their factories. On the the other hand they usually transfer their factories, and keep their innovative centers, research centers and design offices in the home countries, which are mostly developed countries. Therefor they have the ability and authority to easily transfer their factories to each other country that suggests them more advantages than the current country (Malaysia). It means that however, have had precious and substantial developments in the past years, but these development could not be considered as sustainable developments. If fact economic growth, low unemployment rate and foreign investement and labour-intensive industries are in contradiction with the vision of 2020, outwardly. That is why the Malaysian government knows that it has to emphasize more on the niche industries, with higher value-added and a bigger value chain. In addition, because international companies keep their design offices on their homelands they do not help the research activities to grow in the Malaysia. Though, the brain drain problems still remain due to underdevelopment of universities and research institutions. But, by introducing and developing domestic brands with an international market and international famousness, we can be hopeful that they can reduce the brain drain, empower research institutions and gift the Malaysia a sustainable growth and development. Another reason that can be mentioned for developing original Malaysian brand is that however, the Malaysia it going going further than its regional competitors to a high-income nation, there is a probability that these competitors implement some similar plans in their countries. And because at that time they have to implement similar policies like emphasizing the high value-added or creative and innovative industries, so they can be a potential threat to the future competitiveness of the Malaysia in attracting foreign investors in these kinds of industries. 9- Domestic Private Investment instead of Foreign Investement However, foreign investment had a significant effect on the economic growth of every country; usually the domestic investments provide a more sustainable development for the country. Certainly, foreign investment has its advantages for every economy (for the Malaysia, too), but too much dependence on the foreign investment has its disadvantages, too. I believe that the Malaysia has to emphasize on the domestic private investement, beside foreign investement. Domestic investors have religion, historical, national, and patriotic loyalty to their home country. While foreign investors are very sensitive and spiky. They will leave the country soon after than they find a better place for investment. In addition, international political issues can affect foreign investement. Universal superpowers can enact some sanctions formally, or informally to affect and hit Malaysia’s economy (like the Iran) if the Malaysia want to insist on its national interests or beliefs which are in conflict with those superpowers interests. 10- Global Economic Conditions and Crises: As we know in the past decade, the global economy has experienced numerous crises. 1998 Southeast Asia, 2002 dot-com bubble burst, 2008 financial crisis, and now European financial crisis, while still we can see the 2008 crisis is not finished. In addition that there are not good signs for these two last crises to finish soon. Some economists believe that USA will have a recession and depreciation economy at least in next few years, something like the Japan’s lost decade. Developing strong bonds with global economy can benefit the Malaysia’s economy when the economy is in good condition. But if the global economy or regional economies that the Malaysia has common interest with them experience bad conditions, the Malaysia will be affected badly, too. May be the only problem that the Malaysia cannot find an effective solution for that is the global economic condition and crisis. Bibliography Central Bank Malaysia. (2010). Annual Report. Kuala Lumpur. Ministry of Eduation. (2011). Economic Transformation Programme: A Roadmap for Malaysia. Kuala Lupmur. Oxford Business Group. (2011). The Report: Malaysia 2011. London: Oxford Business Group publication. World Bank. (2011). Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain. Bangkok: World Bank. YAKCOP, T. S. (2011, July 26). MALAYSIA’S ECONOMIC CHALLENGES: CHARTING POLICY RESPONSE TOWARDS A HIGH INCOME ECONOMY. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. |