The objective basis of international production cooperation (MCP) is the growing level of development of production forces, the degree of their division into industries, production, enterprises. A powerful stimulus for the development of the MCP was the radical transformation in the conditions of str of the primary cell of production – an enterprise from which individual stages of the technological process are actively “spun off”, the production of the components of the final product is allocated.
World experience shows that the cooperation of labor and production is an objective historical process that is inherent in all modes of production, countries with any socio-economic system. In the cooperation of production, advanced ideas, achievements in the branches of fundamental science, research and development (R&D), production, design, management and information technologies are combined and materialized.
Cooperation in the modern world is becoming the reproductive base of socio-economic, scientific and technological progress of the countries of the world, the core of world economic processes, regional economic integration, transnationalization (production, R&D, information and financial sphere, etc.), international industrial cooperation, globalization of the world economy. This form of interaction between the subjects of the world economy has become an accelerator of the structural restructuring of industry, its sectoral and interdepartmental complexes on a new technological basis, including on the basis of the widespread use of electronic and information technologies.
In the economic literature, the term “production cooperation” in international cooperation is used both in a narrow sense, which is understood as cooperation exclusively in production activities, and in a broad sense that includes various spheres of economic activity of enterprises: scientific research, material and technical support, production process, sales of products, enterprise management.
In the glossary of terms, which was published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 1983, industrial cooperation (the term “industrial cooperation” is equated with the term “industrial cooperation” in its broad sense) is defined as “relations between enterprises of different countries based on a long-term commonality of interests”. Industrial cooperation may include the granting of licenses, the establishment of enterprises or production lines; the development of new types of technologies and the provision of information related to those types of technologies; production, marketing, joint projects or joint application for a contract.
Most foreign economists believe that the most important features of international industrial cooperation are the long-term (repeated) economic ties, their direct focus on the production of material goods, joint or technologically related activities in order to save costs, improve production, increase labor productivity, quality of products and production efficiency. At the same time, cooperation cooperation extends both to the production itself and to activities preceding the production process or related to it in another way, for example, to the sale of finished products.
In the whole community of cooperative ties, scientific and technical cooperation between economic entities of different countries can be considered as part of international production cooperation. In the event that cooperation ties in research activities extend in the future to the sphere of production or, conversely, cooperation in the field of production entails cooperation of partners in the field of industrial developments related to the improvement of products, we are dealing with production and technical cooperation.
With the agreement of the partners in production and technical cooperation on the general sale of products, such cooperation takes the form of scientific, production and sales cooperation. Cooperation in this form reflects an integrated approach to solving the problems of scientific and technological development, in which all stages of social production from scientific research to the sale of products on the world market should be linked into one system.
In accordance with the UNECE concept, the following forms of industrial cooperation are distinguished:
supply of complete enterprises and equipment with subsequent payment of their cost by products to be manufactured on their basis; provision of licenses and (or) production experience, as well as knowledge with subsequent payment of their cost by supplying products obtained with their use; consecutively; co-production, including research and development (R&D); joint ventures;
joint projects.
The supply of complete enterprises, equipment with the subsequent payment of their cost, products manufactured on their basis or raw materials that will be extracted, is a special form of production cooperation. It is also called cooperative cooperation on a compensatory basis or simply “compensation agreements”. In addition to the supply of machinery, equipment, technological lines and their installation, it also includes related services provided by the supplier and the price of which, as a rule, is included in the cost of the agreement. The supplier provides the client with a work plan, trains local staff, assists in the commissioning of the facility, etc. Often cooperation extends to the exchange of technical documentation and information, joint research on product improvement, the implementation of the production process and joint marketing.
Close in essence to the first form of cooperation is the provision of licenses, production experience and knowledge with the subsequent payment of their cost by supplying products obtained with their use. This form of cooperation can only conditionally be considered as a form of cooperation, since in this case the establishment of direct permanent production or scientific and technical ties between partners is not guaranteed. Such compensation agreements develop into cooperative agreements, subject to the establishment of joint production.
A contract is the simplest, initial form of cooperation, in which the contractor undertakes to perform certain works in accordance with the task of his cooperation partner, his order and according to his technical documentation or specifications. A common feature of agreements of this type of cooperation is a short term and validity – most of them include short-term obligations that are renewed annually. In general, cooperative cooperation on the basis of simple contractual relations should be considered as a transitional stage to more complex forms of cooperation, for example, to such as joint production.
Joint production involves the exchange of components and parts with the subsequent assembly of finished products at the enterprise of one or both partners. A prerequisite for the successful implementation of this form of cooperation is the solution of issues of standardization, unification and typification of individual parts and assemblies, final products. It is usually accompanied by a large volume of mutual deliveries and leads to greater interdependence and greater interconnection of partners. Co-production involves the supply by each partner of a certain number of units, parts and other components for the manufacture of the final product at the enterprise of one or both partners. This also includes the development of technical specifications for these components, the distribution of their production among partners with the establishment of the volume and specifics of production. Often, such cooperation extends to general R&D. In this case, there may be a transfer of the developed technology to both parties and cooperation must be strictly balanced. Joint production on the basis of specialization in comparison with cooperation cooperation based on the distribution of programs makes it possible to more fully use capacities, increase the competitiveness of products, and reduce production costs. International practice shows that the achievement of agreements with a high degree of specialization of partners is a complex and long-term process that requires a clear definition of the responsibilities of the parties, the harmonization of prices, technical standards, the timing of deliveries of raw materials, quality control procedures for components and final products, the procedure for resolving discrepancies, as well as effective coordination of actions.
Joint ventures (JVs) are a more complex, integrated form of industrial cooperation. Based on the principles of joint participation of partners in capital, management, distribution of income and risks, they provide for greater interest in fulfilling their obligations. Joint ventures concentrate the advantages and advantages of all forms of cooperation (increasing the technical level of products and their competitiveness, producing products in a shorter time with lower production costs, accelerating the innovation cycle, penetrating the markets of other countries with the expansion of export sales to them).
Cooperative cooperation in the form of joint projects is the cooperation of two or more countries for the implementation of a project (respectively, bilateral or multilateral) both in the interests of the home countries of the cooperation partners, and for its implementation at the request of any other country.
Over the past two decades, transnational cooperation of corporate structures has become significantly widespread in the world, which, depending on the form of its existence, combines almost all the above forms of international cooperation. The emergence and spread of organizational structures in the world in the form of transnational companies (TNCs) is caused by complications and intertwining of economic processes, increased intercompany and interstate competition for sales markets and sources of raw materials. As a rule, TNCs are understood as long-term voluntary cooperation based on a contract (agreement) between legally and economically independent enterprises that are located in different countries in order to achieve a common goal through the conscious coordinated behavior of partners, the number of which is not limited. The forms of such entrepreneurial cooperation, first of all, are determined by: the kinship of the production activities of enterprises and the technological processes that are carried out on them, the presence or absence of the mechanism of joint-stock co-founding. In the presence of the latter, the phenomenon of a transnational financial and industrial corporation arises, and many developed corporate structures are associations of a financial and industrial nature.
The importance of the development of international cooperation is explained, first of all, by the constant trend of increasing the capital intensity of the production of new products, which requires huge financial resources. International cooperation of production makes it possible to significantly reduce the time of preparation for the production of new goods and reduce their capital intensity. According to the UNECE, interstate agreements on technical cooperation and exchange of components and parts based on cooperation reduce the time of preparation for the production of new products by an average of about 14 to 20 months compared to organizing it exclusively on their own, and also reduce the cost of mastering new production by 50-70%. This is due to the fact that international cooperation expands the possibilities of integrated, continuous and mobile use of various production resources. At the same time, there are also savings due to new technical foreign developments. In addition, cooperation makes it possible to achieve over 90% of the quality level of products of a foreign partner, while the development of foreign technology on its own allows to provide only 70-80% of this indicator.
Export, as you know, is one of the priorities of the economic strategy of the Republic of Belarus. In this regard, one of the reserves for increasing Belarusian exports is concentrated within the framework of international industrial complexes. Practice shows that in modern conditions an important form of involvement of Belarusian enterprises in cooperative relations is the creation of specialized financial and industrial groups (FIG), in particular, with the Russian side. We are talking, for example, about the FIG “Aerospace Equipment” and the FIG “Defensive Systems”.
The agreement on the establishment of the FIG “Defensive Systems”, signed at the end of 2000, provides for the participation of the Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant, the Borisov Instrument-Making Plant, the aircraft repair enterprise of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus (Baranovichi), NPO Integral, JSCB Minskcomplksbank and a number of other enterprises. Within the framework of the FIG, investment projects are being implemented that meet the interests of Belarusian enterprises. To maintain the high export potential of their products, its participants intend to accumulate the best national scientific and technical achievements.
Thus, Belarus implements an economic policy based on the principles of externally oriented development. In other words, integration into the world economy is ensured, in particular, through the comprehensive development of forms of international division of labor on the basis of large-scale and effective cooperation with other countries.
The progressive development of the productive forces of society, the scientific and technological development diversify the economic ties of national economies, cause an increase in interdependence between the subjects of the world economy, i.e. globalization of the world market space, which will be discussed in the next topic.