Sustainable Green Growth in Developing Economies

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) initiated by Chinese government could be regarded as a systematic framework for promoting economic cooperation and development among the countries along the Belt and Road and China. This paper attempts to analyze economic and environmental performance in 61 developing countries along Belt and Road. An additive total factor productivity growth measure allows aggregating contributions of individual countries along the BRI to construct a reasonable measure. Both desirable and undesirable outputs are considered. The growth in the total factor productivity is decomposed with respect to the economic and environmental contributions. The annual average growth rate of green productivity is 3.1% and the disparity of economic and environmental performance could be observed among countries. Some countries show robust economic growths while environmental performance slows down green growth. This indicates that developing economies should pay attention to environmental impacts and promote sustainable development by sharing emission reduction technologies.

China's Investment Abroad and Imports to Countries Along the Belt and Road

Belt and Road is an open regional economic cooperation system. The strategy of Belt and Road is proposed to promote economic development and trade cooperation between China and the countries along the route, and to jointly build a community of shared interests and destiny between China and the countries along the rou2te. Under the current international background of global economic integration and trade protectionism, Researching on China’s investment abroad and imports to countries along the Belt and Road has strong practical significance. This article analyzes the status quo of China's investment and imports in countries along the Belt and Road, studies the existing problems, and proposes countermeasures.

Trends in Emission Inventory of Marine Traffic for Port of Haifa

Located in the Middle East, Haifa Port serves both local and international trade interests (from Asia, Europe, America, Africa, etc.). Due to its strategic location, the port is part of the Belt and Road initiative. This research investigates Haifa Port’s emissions contribution to the existing daily emission inventory level in the area. This research is based on a developed full bottom-up model framework that looks at the single vessel daily voyage through its port call stages. The main data sources for vessel movements used in this research are the Israel Navy’s movements log and the Israel Administration of Shipping and Ports’ (ASP) operational vessel movements and cargo log. The Fuel Consumption (FC) data and Sulfur Content (SC) levels are based on official Israel ASP survey data. The observation years in this research are 2010–2018, with a focus on the Ocean-Going Vessel (OGV) type only. The results show that the vessel fleet calling at Israel ports mainly comprises vessels that have a lower engine tier grade (i.e., Tier 0 and 1), which is considered a heavy contributor to nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution. The study recommends an additional cost charged (selective tariff) to reflect the external social cost linked to the single vessel air pollution combined with supportive technological infrastructure and economic incentive tools (e.g., electric subsidy) to attract or influence vessel owners to assign vessels equipped with new engine tier grades for calls at Israeli ports.

Assessment and influencing factors analysis of economic system vulnerability of the Belt and Road Initiative countries

Economic vulnerability is an important indicator to measure regional coordination, health and stability. Despite the importance of vulnerabilities, this is the first study that presents 26 indicators selected from the dimensions of the domestic economic system, external economic system and financial system in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. A quantitative analysis is conducted to analyze the characteristics of spatial heterogeneity of vulnerability of the economic subsystems and the comprehensive economic system of the BRI countries and the main influencing factors of the comprehensive economic system vulnerability (CESV) are identified based on obstacle degree model. The results show that the CESV of the East Asia, South Asia and ASEAN countries are lower than that of the Middle Eastern Europe, Central Asia and West Asia countries. The CESV of the BRI countries are generally in the middle level and the average vulnerability index of highly vulnerable countries is twice as much as that of lowly vulnerable countries. In addition, in terms of the vulnerability of the three subsystems, the spatial distribution of vulnerability of the domestic economic system (DESV) and financial system (FSV) is basically consistent with the spatial distribution pattern of CESV, both of which are low in East Asia and South Asia and high in West Asia and Central Asia. While, the vulnerability of external economic system (EESV) shows a different spatial pattern, with vulnerability of West Asia, Central Asia and ASEAN higher than that of East Asia and South Asia. The main obstacle factors influencing the CESV of BRI countries include GDP growth rate, saving ratio, ratio of bank capital to assets, service industry level, industrialization level and loan rate. Therefore, the key way to maintain the stability and mitigate the vulnerability of the economic system of BRI countries is to focus on the macroeconomic development and operation, stimulate the economy and market vitality, promote the development of industries, especially the service and secondary industries, and optimize the economic structure, banking system and financial system.