This study investigated the relationship between telecommunications development, trade openness and economic growth in South Africa. It determined explicitly if telecommunications development and trade openness directly impact economic growth or whether telecommunications strengthen or weaken the link between trade openness and economic growth using the ARDL bounds test methodology. The findings reveal that both telecommunications development indicators and trade openness significantly and positively impact South Africa’s GDP in the short and long terms. The study also found that control variables like internet usage and gross fixed capital formation significantly and positively influence GDP. Conversely, inflation was found to consistently affect GDP negatively and significantly. The findings from the ARDL cointegration analysis affirm a long-run economic relationship between the independent variables and GDP. The study also established that telecommunications development slightly distorts trade in the foreign trade-GDP nexus in South Africa. Despite this, the negative interaction effect is not substantial enough to overshadow the positive impact of trade openness on economic growth. From a policy perspective, the study recommends that South African policymakers prioritise enhancing local goods’ competitiveness in global markets and reducing trade barriers. It also advocates for improving the accessibility and affordability of telecommunications technologies to foster economic development.

The financial inclusion program in Asia has begun to be carried out intensively, focusing on increasing public access, especially for people who have yet to enjoy banking services. This makes financial inclusion one of the development focuses in the financial sector in various countries, especially in the Asian region. This study compares the financial inclusion level and socioeconomic variables’ influence on financial inclusion in Asian countries in 2010–2022. To compare the level of financial inclusion in several Asian countries, the Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) analysis method was used, while to examine the relationship between socioeconomic variables on financial inclusion, the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method was used with an estimation technique, in the Fixed Effects Model approach. The results of this study indicate that, in general, financial inclusion in several Asian countries is mainly influenced by the usability dimension. In addition, only the variable GDP per capita is partially influential. While other variables, namely, the unemployment rate and population in rural areas, significantly influence the financial inclusion index.

African countries have shown interest in developing the legal framework for electronic payment as part of digital law. The article aims to analyze the role of the legal framework for electronic payment in the field of digital economy. It relies on a legal methodology through analyzing legal texts related to electronic payment. It also relies on the comparative and descriptive approaches whenever there is a scientific necessity. The article concluded that the legal framework plays an important role in the field of digital economy. This framework appears in the general rules of civil and commercial laws or through the laws of money and credit. Other laws also play a complementary role, such as criminal law and personal data protection laws.

Baribis Fault disasters caused the loss of human lives. This study investigates the strategies local communities employ in Indonesia to cope with disasters. A qualitative study was conducted on various cultural strategies used to mitigate disasters in relevant areas. These strategies were selected based on the criteria of locally based traditional oral and written knowledge obtained through intensive interviews. The study reveals that technological and earth science solutions are insufficient to resolve disasters resulting from Baribis Fault activity. Still, local culture and knowledge also play a crucial role in disaster mitigation. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how cultural strategies avoid disasters and highlights the need to transform local knowledge regarding effective cultural strategies for mitigating such disasters. This transformation can have positive psychological implications and enhance community harmony.

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of internal university social responsibility policies on the administrative personnel of a Colombian university. Under a non-probabilistic sampling method, the study collected information from 58 collaborators selected from a total of 92 working at the university. The information was collected through a structured questionnaire and evaluated using the generalized linear model. The results indicate that administrators perceive that university social responsibility policies have an adverse effect on the work environment. This is justified by the fact that the university’s actions are not oriented towards the welfare of its personnel. In conclusion, universities should concentrate enormous efforts on implementing strategies that foster the commitment of their collaborators, in order to generate a significant impact on their responsibility and motivation.

This study investigated the changing land use patterns and their impacts on ecosystem in the Teesta River Basin of northwestern Bangladesh. Although anthropocentric land use patterns, including agricultural land use, settlements, built areas, and waterbody loss, have been increasing in the Nilphamari district, by negatively affecting local ecosystems, they have not been identified by prior research. Limitations of contemporary literature motivated me to work on this crucial ground in the Teesta River Basin in Northwestern Bangladesh. This study applied a mixed research approach to identify the study objectives. Firstly, the land use and land cover (LULC) changes which occurred between 2000 and 2020 were detected using satellite imagery and supervised classification method. In addition to the detection of LULC changes, the study explored the people’s perceptions and experiences about the ecosystem changes resulted from the LULC changes over the last 20 years, conducting stakeholders’ consultations and household surveys utilizing a semi-structured questionnaire. The findings indicated that waterbodies in Nilphamari district have significantly decreased from 378 km² in 2000 to 181 km² in 2020. In the same way, the vegetation coverage has reduced 187 km² between the years 2000 and 2020. On the contrary, agricultural lands (croplands) have increased from 595 km² to 905 km² and settlements have increased from 81 km² to 206 km² between the years 2000 and 2020. From the chi-square test, it was found a significant association between ecosystem change and biodiversity loss. It was further identified that waterbody decreases have significant impacts on aquatic ecosystems. The results of this study also indicated that due to the introduction of foreign tree species, local and native species have been significantly decreasing over the time. This study emphasizes the non-anthropocentric and inclusive land use policy implications for protecting life on land and preserving the aquatic ecosystem in Bangladesh.