The nexus between foreign direct investment, natural resource endowment, and their impact on sustained economic growth, is contentious. This study investigates the resource curse hypothesis and the effects of FDI on economic growth in Kazakhstan. The study covers the period from 1990 to 2022 and employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Toda-Yamamoto causality methods. The Bounds cointegration results reveal the existence of long-term equilibria between per capita GDP and the predictors. The findings reveal a significant impact of oil rents on economic growth, contradicting the resource curse hypothesis and suggesting a resource boon instead. In stark contrast, the impact of FDI on Kazakhstan’s economic growth is found to be insignificant, despite the presence of a causal nexus. Furthermore, economic freedom and export diversification have a positive significant impact on economic growth, while inflation exhibits a negative but significant impact. Although governance has a direct impact on GDP per capita, it is deemed insignificant, as the negative average governance index implies poor governance. Expectedly, the result establishes a causal effect between export diversification, economic freedom, governance, oil rents, and economic growth. This underscores the fundamental role played by the interplay of diversification, economic freedom, governance, and oil rents in fostering sustainable economic growth. In addition, economic freedom stimulates gross fixed capital formation, indicating that it enhances domestic investment. Notably, the findings refute the crowding-out effect of FDI on domestic investment in Kazakhstan. Consequently, to escape the resource curse and the Dutch disease syndrome, the study advocates for enhancing good governance capabilities in Kazakhstan. Thus, we recommend that good governance could reconcile the twin goals of economic diversification and deriving benefits from oil resources, ultimately transforming oil wealth into a boon in Kazakhstan.

Today urban development lacks ecological foundations in many cities of Turkey. The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between urban green spaces and ecological zones in the sample of Aksaray/Turkey. In this study, a study design has been created to improve the urban ecological infrastructure and to associate the green space network with the ecological zones. This design is divided into four parts as data processing, landscape pattern of urban green spaces, analysis of the spatial boundaries of urban natural ecological zones, and determination of the importance of spatial regions by overlaying two different stratified analyses. This study proposes a methodological framework that can be integrated into efforts to identify ecological zones to increase the sustainability of urban ecology and green space quality. One potential limitation of the proposed methodology can be the lack of consensus and enthusiasm among the administrative actors regarding the issue. Therefore, it is recommended that the administrative bodies should be correctly informed by the relevant scholars and practitioners who are working on the subject.

This article presents a comparative analysis and characteristics of the pension insurance systems of foreign countries, namely Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, France with the aim of implementing their effective and noteworthy experience in Ukraine. The key indicators of the characteristics of the pension systems of these countries and Ukraine (amount of insurance contributions to the public pension fund; retirement age; insurance period; the ratio of the average pension to the average wage) have been studied and analyzed. Having examined these indicators, the authors came to the conclusion that the general trend in most countries of the world is that they guarantee only a minimum pension, which is caused by the increase in the share of pensioners in society. To solve the demographic problems affecting pension provision, the most countries increase the retirement age and provide financial incentives to stimulate citizens to work after the retirement age. To increase the pension, there are pension accumulation tools at the expense of the employer or at the expense of one’s own funds. Following the example of foreign countries, the directions for improving the pension insurance system of Ukraine were allocated.

Objective: To promote the development of China’s crop seed industry with high quality, guarantee food security and sustainable agricultural development, scientific design of the evaluation index system for high-quality development of the seed industry and conduct of metric analysis are the keys to promoting the revitalization of the seed industry and the construction of a strong agricultural country. Methods: This paper focused on the high-quality development of China’s crop seed industry as the main research object by combining previous research findings of studies based on the connotation of high-quality development of the crop seed industry and constructed the evaluation index system of high-quality development of China’s crop seed industry which covers five dimensions, namely, innovation-driven development, green and sustained development, coordinated and comprehensive development, opening-up and strengthened development, and share-and-promote development, The Entropy method, Dagum’s Gini coefficient, Kernel’s density estimation, and panel regression methods were used to comprehensively analyze the spatial and temporal evolution, regional differences, and driving factors of the level of high-quality development of the crop seed industry in 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of China from 2011 to 2020. Conclusions: After systematic analysis, it was concluded that (1) the overall level of high-quality development in China’s crop seed industry has stabilized, and progress has been made. (2) The overall inter-regional differences among the four major regions showed a gradual upward trend, with the inter-regional differences serving as the primary source of the differences and the contribution rate of various inter-regional differences demonstrating an upward trend. (3) Innovation capacity, the cultural and educational level of rural residents, the development of rural infrastructure, national financial support, and market-oriented approach are important factors driving the high-quality development of the crop seed industry in Chinese provinces (districts and municipalities).

Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) have revolutionized urban transportation worldwide, but their implementation in developing countries faces significant challenges, including infrastructure modernization, resource constraints, and varying internet accessibility. This paper proposes a methodological framework for optimizing the implementation of Cyber-Physical Urban Mobility Systems (CPUMS) tailored to improve the quality of life in developing countries. Central to this framework is the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) approach, augmented with advanced artificial intelligence techniques. The DSM facilitates the visualization and integration of CPUMS components, while statistical and multivariate analysis tool such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and artificial intelligence methods such as K-means clustering enhance complex system the analysis and optimization of complex system decisions. These techniques enable engineers and urban planners to design modular and integrated CPUMS components that are crucial for efficient, and sustainable urban mobility solutions. The interdisciplinary approach addresses local challenges and streamlines the design process, fostering economic development and technological innovation. Using DSM and advanced artificial intelligence, this research aims to optimize CPS-based urban mobility solutions, by identifying critical outliers for targeted management and system optimization.