With the increasing climate change crisis, the ongoing global energy security challenges, and the prerequisites for the development of sustainable and affordable energy for all, the need for renewable energy resources has been highlighted as a global aim of mankind. However, the worldwide deployment of renewable energy calls for large-scale financial and technological contributions which many States cannot afford. This exacerbates the need for the promotion of foreign investments in this sector, and protecting them against various threats. International Investment Agreements (IIAs) offer several substantive protections that equally serve foreign investments in this sector. Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) clauses are among these. This is a flexible standard of treatment whose boundaries are not clearly defined so far. Investment tribunals have diverse views of this standard. Against this background, this article asks: What are the prominent international renewable energy investment threats, and how can FET clauses better contribute to alleviating these concerns? Employing a qualitative method, it analyses the legal aspects and properties of FET and concludes that the growing security and regulatory threats have formed a sort of modern legitimate expectations on the part of renewable energy investors who expect host states to protect them against such threats. Hence, IIAs and tribunals need to uphold a definite and broadly applicable FET approach to bring more consistency and predictability to arbitral awards. This would help deter many unfavourable practices against investments in this sector.

This research explores the role of digital economy in driving agricultural development in the BIMSTEC region, which includes Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan (with Bhutan excluded due to data limitations) with a particular focus on mobile technologies, computing capacity and internet connectivity which were the most readily available data points for BIMSTEC. Using a combination of document analysis, and panel data analysis with the data covering 10 years (2012–2021), the study examines the interplay of key digital technologies with agricultural growth while controlling for factors including water usage, fertilizer consumption, and land temperature and agricultural land area. The analysis incorporates additional variables such as infrastructure development, credit to agriculture, investment in agricultural research, and education level. The findings reveal a strong positive correlation between mobile technology, Internet and computing capacity in BIMSTEC. This study underscores that digital tools are pivotal in enhancing agricultural productivity, yet their impact is significantly combined with investment in infrastructure and education. This study suggests that digital solutions, when strategically integrated with broader socio-economic factors can effectively challenges in developing countries, particularly in rural and underserved regions. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on digital economy in agriculture, highlighting how digital technologies can foster agricultural productivity in developing countries.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of performance for insurance companies in Tunisia from 2004 to 2017. Namely, we consider three dimensions of determinants; those related to firms’ microenvironment, macroenvironment and meso or industry environment. The performance of insurance companies is measured using three criteria: Return On Assets (ROA), Return On Equity (ROE), and Combined Ratio. The independent variables are categorized into three groups: microeconomic variables (Firm Size, Financial leverage, Capital management risk, Volume of capital, and Age of the firm), meso-economic variables (Concentration ratio and Insurance Sector Size), and macroeconomic variables (Inflation, Unemployment, and Population Growth). The General Least Squares (GLS) regression technique is employed for the analysis. The study reveals that the financial performance of Tunisian insurance companies is positively influenced by firm size, capital amount, and risk capital management. On the other hand, it is negatively influenced by leverage level, industry size, concentration index, inflation, and unemployment. In terms of technical performance, the capital amount of the firm, industry size, age of the firm, and population growth have a positive impact. However, firm size, leverage, concentration index, and risk capital management negatively affect technical performance. This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the determinants of performance specifically for insurance companies in Tunisia. Besides the classical proxies of performance, this paper has the originality of using the technical performance which is the most suitable for the case of Insurance companies.

Using a qualitative research methodology and explanatory approach to collect data, we assessed whether the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a promoter or threat to Africa’s pathway to sustainable development. The collected data were analysed using document and content analysis techniques. Analysis of the data revealed that the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a positive initiative that has created a win-win situation, promoting sustainable development. The Beijing Consensus is opposed to the Washington Consensus, which influenced a win-lose situation that has deepened poverty, making Africa unable to move towards achieving sustainable development. The study found that China’s resource-for-development approach has similarities with pre-colonial Africa’s barter trade approach, which Africans practised in the entire continent. The analysis showed that applying the Beijing Consensus diplomacy to Africa has led to economic growth and development. The results showed that China’s Belt Road Initiative has transformed Africa, changing the continent from poverty to economic productivity, as road infrastructure is associated with economic growth and development. Moreover, it was evident from the analysis that without an African continental foreign policy rooted in continental sovereignty with transparent terms and conditions, Africa’s current benefits from China’s investments would lead to poverty instead of sustainable development. A continental foreign policy would create an African Consensus, which would act on behalf of the entire continent. This African Consensus diplomacy would thus become a continental foreign policy defining Africa globally. However, as it stands, the Beijing Consensus diplomacy is a promoter of sustainable development, but this promotion would not last long without African Consensus diplomacy. The study recommends that Africa should establish a continental foreign policy with African Consensus diplomacy to enable the continent to have one standard foreign policy and goal when trading with China and any other external world.

In the context of a globalized economic environment, businesses are facing an increasing number of environmental challenges, prompting them not only to pursue economic benefits but also to focus on environmental protection and social responsibility. Green supply chain management (GSCM) and green innovation have become key strategies for enterprises aiming for sustainable development. This study explores the impact of green supply chain practices on green innovation performance, with a focus on how knowledge management and organizational integration serve as mediating variables in this relationship. Grounded in the resource-based view (RBV) and knowledge-based view (KBV) theories, this research employs surveys and in-depth interviews with companies across various industries, combined with the analysis of structural equation modeling, to reveal the complex relationship between GSCM practices, knowledge management capabilities, levels of organizational integration, and green innovation performance. The results show that GSCM practices significantly enhance corporate green innovation performance through effective knowledge management and organizational integration. These findings enrich the theories of GSCM and green innovation, providing practical guidance for enterprises on how to enhance green innovation performance through strengthening knowledge management and organizational integration. Finally, this study discusses its limitations and suggests possible directions for future research, such as exploring the differences in findings across different industry backgrounds and examining other potential mediating or moderating variables.

The competencies of public health professionals serve as the cornerstone for curriculum development ensuring that educational programs are pertinent efficient and attuned to the requirements of both the public health workforce and the communities they serve. This study endeavors to investigate the knowledge competency of public health professionals in Thailand with the intention of refining the suitability of knowledge competency for curriculum development tailored to the needs of public health professionals in Thailand. Employing a qualitative study, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 university lecturers in public health programs in Northeastern Thailand. The data collected were transcribed and analyzed using content analysis. The findings elucidate that the lecturers articulated a core knowledge content pertinent to public health professionals in Thailand delineated across five principal themes and thirteen subjects within the public health curriculum. These themes encompassed: 1) Epidemiology and disease prevention (comprising two subjects), 2) Health promotion and community health (comprising four subjects), 3) Research methods in public health and biostatistics (comprising two subjects), 4) Public health administration, health system, and laws (comprising three subjects), and 5) Environmental health and occupational health and safety (comprising two subjects). Subsequently, this study scrutinized five core courses to formulate a model curriculum for public health. The proposed model curriculum is intended for application in both planning and the development of the public health workforce, fostering interdisciplinary learning and nurturing public health professionals rooted in the authentic context of Thailand.