RTU FEEM held an international scientific conference “Inforum 2017”
The Department of International Business, Transport Economics and Logistics at the International Business and Customs Institute (SESMI) of the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management (FEEM), Riga Technical University (RTU) from 28 August to 1 September, held the 25th “Inforum” (Interindustry Forecasting at the University of Meryland) International Conference. Every year, the conference takes place in one of the partner countries, this year it was organized by RTU FEEM, and was attended by cooperation partners from 14 countries.
At the opening of the conference, Tālis Juhna, Vice-Rector for Research, RTU presented RTU activities and scientific achievements to the conference participants, as well as asserted his support to the research of the “Inforum” project group at RTU FEEM.
The conference participants discussed the issues of developing and applying econometric, input and output, as well as “Inforum” type of economically mathematical models used for the analysis and forecast the dynamics of the structure of national and industrial sectors in different countries. RTU FEEM was represented by Assoc. Prof. Velga Ozoliņa and Prof. Remigijs Počs reporting on the analysis of competitiveness of Latvian industries using macroeconomic models. Scientists from other countries in their presentations this year reflected on the issues of analysis and modelling of structural changes, labour migration and human capital assessment and modelling, different aspects of value-added trade and other research results. In addition to the scientific paper sessions, this year’s conference program included a workshop on the specifics and application of the specialized modelling software “Portable Dyme”.
The scientific project of the “Inforum” model development was launched 50 years ago and is now being successfully developed by the scientists of the University of Maryland. The project currently involves scientists and research institutions from 24 countries – the USA, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey. An important event at the conference was the signing of a cooperation agreement between the national partners of the “Inforum” group.
