With the declaration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the importance of localisation principles and, consequently, the local-level institutions in implementing development policies came to the forefront. India adopted a thematic approach by condensing the seventeen goals into nine themes, to be worked upon by the local administrative units, furthering that each Village Panchayat (constitutionally known as Grama Panchayats) should select a theme in a plan year and strive towards attaining it. For the South Indian state of Kerala, with its good trajectory of decentralised governance, this localisation process of SDGs was rather smooth. In this article, we discuss the case of the best-performing Grama Panchayat (GP) in Kerala, which has identified ‘Village with Self-Sufficient Infrastructure’ as the development theme. Through qualitative research methodology, we examine how the Panchayat included projects specific to this theme in the development plans and how the implementation helped produce effects on multidimensional aspects of SDGs using the SDG Impact Assessment Tool. The case studies of different infrastructure-based projects endorse that with proper planning and implementation of such projects, the lowest tier of administration can significantly contribute to the improvement of development goals. We have delineated full fund utilisation through convergence schemes, community participation, and strong monitoring mechanisms as the factors leading the selected Panchayat to be the champion of the cause. The accomplishment exhibited by the Panchayat by integrating SDGs into the Village Development Plan through the projects on the theme of self-sufficient infrastructure can be well emulated by other local bodies across the world.

This study addresses the impact of the tourism sector on poverty, poverty depth, and poverty severity in Indonesia, focusing on the micro-level dynamics in the province. Despite numerous tourism destinations, their strategic contribution to regional progress remains underexplored. The motivation stems from the need to comprehend the nuanced relationship between tourism and poverty at both the national and local levels, with specific attention to the untapped potential at the province level in Indonesia. We hypothesize that a higher tourism sector GRDP will be inversely correlated with poverty levels, and the inclusion of a Covid-19 variable will reveal a structural impact on poverty dynamics. Employing a Panel Regression Model, secondary data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) spanning 2011–2020 is utilized. A panel data regression equation model, including CEM, FEM, and REM, is employed to analyze the intricate relationship between tourism and poverty. The findings demonstrate a negative correlation between higher tourism sector GRDP and the number of poor people. The Covid-19 variable, considered a structural break, reveals a significant association between increased cases and elevated poverty and severity across Indonesian provinces. This study contributes a micro-level analysis of tourism’s role, emphasizing its impact at the provincial level. The findings underscore the need for strategic initiatives to harness the untapped potential of tourism in alleviating poverty and promoting regional progress.

This study intends to explore the idea of a vocational village strategy to foster sustainable rural development. Vocational villages, offering targeted skills training and economic opportunities, present a compelling soft approach to rural development, addressing the need for sustainable livelihoods and community empowerment. Drawing upon the collaborative governance (the penta-helix model); underpinning the social capital perspective; and highlighting the economic, institutional, cultural, environmental, technological, and institutional dimensions of sustainable development, a vocational village strategy is expected to level up village capacities and facilitate modernization. The research was narratively developed through a qualitative methodology using primary and secondary data sources. Primary empirical data was employed to analyze vocational village practices in Panggungharjo Village, Yogyakarta, Indonesia as a representative example. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) framework provided secondary data to present comparative literature on vocational village development. The findings determined a four-staged vocational village model includes initiation, training, business development, and independence. The success of this model is contingent upon political, bureaucratic, and sociocultural factors (social capital), as well as the effective collaboration of government, academia, industry, and community (penta-helix). This research contributes to the urgency of vocational village practices and models as a viable strategy for achieving equitable and sustainable rural development.

This study aims to examine the influence of employee and entrepreneur competencies on work efficiency and performance of export companies at the Nong Khai border checkpoint. The research conducted is a quantitative survey. The population for this study includes employees and entrepreneurs from the cross-border export service industry, exporters, and freight forwarder agents operating at the Nong Khai border checkpoint. A non-probability sampling method was employed to select participants. The sample size was Cochran estimated using Cochran’s formula. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 385 logistics employees and entrepreneurs selected through purposive sampling. The questionnaires were distributed to employees and entrepreneurs from the export entrepreneurial industry, cross-border export service providers, exporters, and freight forwarder agents at the Nong Khai border checkpoint. The findings revealed that employee and entrepreneur competencies have a direct influence on the work efficiency and performance of export companies. The study concludes that enhancing the competencies of employees and entrepreneurs positively impacts work efficiency and the overall export performance of the company. The research suggests that entrepreneurs should prioritize training and competency development for employees to further improve work efficiency.

The significance of financial literacy is garnering worldwide attention across all age groups. Financial literacy has been defined by certain scholars as a necessary skill for individuals to possess in order to effectively navigate their future financial endeavors. The aim of this article is to perform a bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review in order to investigate the present corpus of scholarship on the application of Financial Literacy. The present study entailed a comprehensive analysis of existing research papers to ascertain the principal contributors to this specific domain, noteworthy subthemes, and prospective directions for further investigation. There has been a noticeable rise in the quantity of literature pertaining to this topic during the period spanning from 2020 to 2023. Furthermore, the utilization of network analysis was employed to chart research clusters. The aforementioned discovery yielded a cumulative total of 84 scholarly publications. The findings of the analysis indicate that there exists a gap in the comprehensive research of the keywords “Financial Behavior”, “Financial Attitude”, and “Financial Inclusion”.

In order to create the possibility of economic breakthrough development, remove economic institutional bottlenecks, release resources, and develop the economy quickly and sustainably in Vietnam in the coming time, it is impossible not to mention solutions to improve the quality, create breakthroughs in training and fostering talents. This is one of the important solutions in the context that the Party and State require the application and development of science and technology more and more extensively in all fields and all sectors in Vietnam. The article focuses on researching the the political basis, legal basis, and practical basis for training, fostering, attracting and employing talents in Vietnam. Meanwhile, statistics on undergraduate and postgraduate training in the period of 2016–2022, the training level of the workforce and the Global Talent Competitiveness Index show that Vietnam has not achieved many positive changes in training, fostering, attracting and employing talents as expected. The article is approached from many different aspects, including the perspective of leaders and managers at the head of state agencies, the perspective of businesses and the perspective of the university teaching staff and scientific research workers themselves. On that basis, the article points out the key contents that need addressing so as to build solutions to improve quality, create breakthroughs in training, fostering, attracting and employing talents in Vietnam in the context of international integration and science and technology development. The main contributions of the article focus on the identification of the concept of “talent”, the criteria for determining “talent” and the renewal of awareness of policies and laws on training, fostering, attracting, employing, introducing and recommending talents.