The overall goal of the project is to compare countries that had fully opened to foreign investors by the early 2000s. One one side are Estonia and Latvia (now EU members), Georgia (considered by many as an example of best practice in reforms), and Kyrgyzstan (where markets are stable but no major economic leap is expected in the next immediate future). On the other are those identified as significant prospective post-USSR markets for the next ten years: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (all of which have shown a more concrete desire for economic dialogue in the past three years), Russia (its eastern region and, in particular, Siberia, which has remained largely unexplored by EU companies), and Azerbaijan, a country that has finally started interacting in more concrete terms with the EU.

The ETN programmes are among the best-supported PhD programmes in the world, and the researchers would be based at DCU, starting in January 2021. The closing date is 25th September, and full details are here.

The full title of the MARKETS project is Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets: Informal Barriers, Business Environments and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, The Caucasus and Central Asia. The project coordinator is Dr Abel Polese.

Original news: https://iicrr.ie/phd-opportunities-for-at-iicrr-announced/