The paper examines the motivations, financing, expansion and challenges of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI was initially designed to address China’s overcapacity and promote economic growth in both China and in countries along the “Belt” and “Road” through infrastructure investment and industrial capacity cooperation. It took into account China’s strategic transition in its opening-up policy and foreign policy to pay more attention to the neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and Central and West Asia when facing greater strategic pressure from the United States in East Asia and the Pacific region. More themes have been added to the initiative’s original framework since its inception in 2013, including the vision of the BRI as China’s major solution to improve international economic cooperation and practice to build a “community of shared future for mankind”, and the idea of the Green Silk Road and the Digital Silk Road. Chinese state-owned enterprises and policy and commercial banks have dominated investment and financing for BRI projects, which explains the root of the problems and risks facing the initiative, such as unsustainable debt, non-transparency, corruption and low economic efficiency. Measures taken by China to tackle these problems, for example, mitigating the debt distress and improving debt sustainability, are unlikely to make a big difference anytime soon due to the tenacity of China’s long-held state-driven investment model.

Eco-friendly and greener barrier materials are required to replace the synthetic packaging materials as they produce a threat to environment. These can be fabricated by natural polymers such as cellulose nanofiber (CNF). The sustainability of CNF was so amazing due to its potential for circular economy and provides alternative platform for synthetic plastics. The challenging task to fabricate CNF films still existed and also current methods have various limitations. CNF films have good oxygen permeability and the value was lower than synthetic plastics. However, CNF films have poor water vapour permeability and higher than that of synthetic plastics. The fabrication method is one of strong parameters to impact on the water permeability of CNF films. The deposition of CNF suspension on the stainless-steel plate via spraying, is a potential process for fabrication for CNF films acting as barrier material against water vapour. In spraying process, the time required to form CNF films in diameter of 15.9 cm was less than 1 min and it is independent of CNF content in the suspension. The uniqueness of CNF films via the spraying process was their surfaces, such as rough surface exposed to air and smooth surface exposed to stainless steel. Their surfaces were investigated by SEM, AFM and optical profilometry micrographs, confirming that the smooth surface was evaluated notable lower surface roughness. The spray coated surface was smooth and glossy and its impact on the water vapor permeability remains obscure. The spraying process is a flexible process to tailor the basis weight and thickness of CNF films can be adjusted by the spraying of CNF suspension with varying fibre content. The water vapour permeability of CNF films can be tailored via varying density of CNF films. The plot between water vapour transfer rate (WVTR)/water vapour and density of CNF films has been investigated. The WVP of spray coated CNF films varied from 6.99 ± 1.17 × 10⁻¹¹ to 4.19 ± 1.45 × 10⁻¹¹ g/m.s.Pa. with the density from 664 Kg/m³ to 1,412.08 Kg/m³. The WVP of CNF films achieved with 2 wt% CNF films (1,120 Kg/m³) was 3.91 × 10⁻¹¹ g/m.s.Pa. These values were comparable with the WVP of synthetic plastics. Given this correspondence, CNF films via spraying have a good barrier against water vapour. This process is a potential for scale up and commercialization of CNF films as barrier materials.

Olive production is threatened by a fungal pathogen, Armillaria mellea (Vahl. Fr.) P. Kumm.,causing decline in trees worldwide. Effectiveness of once and twice applications of fungicides hexaconazole, propicoconazole and thiophanate-methyl and application of biological agent (Trichoderma harzianum) to control A. mellea was studied at orchard scale during four years. T. harzianum inhibited the pathogen growth on agar media. This antagonistic fungus provided a 25% control efficiency of A. mellea on olive trees younger than 15 years which was the same as control efficiency of once application of hexaconazole. Control efficiencies as perfect as 100% were determined on younger (<15 years old) diseased olive trees treated with once applications of thiophanate-methyl and hexaconazole, and twice applications of thiophanate-methyl. Moreover, olive tree age was significantly effective on fungicidal control efficiency. Hence, this four-year research advanced our understanding of sustainable olive production in study region and other geographical areas with similar agro-ecological characteristics.

This paper highlights the complex relationship between entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and economic growth in 41 European countries, using a reliable K-Means cluster analysis. The research thoroughly evaluates three key factors: the SDG Index for sustainable development, GDP per capita for economic well-being, and the New Business Density Rate for entrepreneurial activity. Our methodology reveals three distinct narratives that embody varying degrees of economic vitality and sustainability. Cluster 1 comprises the financially stable and sustainability-oriented countries of Western and Northern Europe. Cluster 2 showcases the variegated economic and sustainability initiatives in Central and Southern Europe. Cluster 3 envelopes the economic titans with noteworthy business expansion but with the potential for better sustainable practices. The analysis reveals a favourable association between economic prosperity and sustainable development within clusters, although with nonlinear intricacies. The research concludes with a series of strategic imperatives specifically crafted for each cluster, promoting economic variation, increased sustainability, invention, and worldwide collaboration. The resulting findings highlight the crucial need for policy-making that considers the specific context and the potential for combined European resilience and sustainability.

More and more scholars are paying attention to the economic and environmental responsibilities undertaken by firms. Firm sustainability has become a hot topic in current research. This article aims to analyze the impact of various dimensions of digital green technology innovation on firm sustainability. The “digital green technology innovation” in this research is a new variable explored based on previous research, and the five dimensions of the variable are created based on the POLE theory. This research uses authoritative Chinese databases to collect data on various dimensions of digital green technology innovation and sustainable development of companies, and uses a fixed effects model for regression analysis. The results indicate that the implementation of various dimensions of digital green technology innovation will promote the firm sustainability. Moreover, in firms with strong profitability, this performance is significantly better than in those with weak profitability.