The Impact of FDI, International Trade, and National Economy on People’s Standard of Living in ASEAN Countries

This research paper analyzes the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI), international trade, and national economy on the standard of living of people in ASEAN member countries, using data from 2012-2021. The study uses data from this period to examine the effects of these variables on the standard of living in ASEAN member countries. The results indicate that international trade and national economy have a significant influence on people's standard of living in the region. However, the effect of FDI varies depending on the level of development of the country. While FDI doesn't have much effect on developing countries, it has a negative impact on developed countries. The study also provides insights for policymakers on how to promote economic growth and improve the quality of life for people in the ASEAN. Keywords: FDI, international trade, national economy, the standard of living, ASEAN DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/15-6-10 Publication date:March 31st 2023

Optimization of protein extraction from "Cam" rice bran by response surface methodology

"Cam" rice bran was considered a waste product from rice, which is rich in natural compounds and protein owing to its outstanding nutritional value. This study aimed to establish an optimization model for extracting protein from rice bran, with two responses: extraction yield (%) and protein content (%). The variable parameters included were pH (8.5-9.5), stirring time (3.5-4.5 h), and enzyme incubation temperature (85-95°C). The coefficient of determination for both models were above 0.95, indicating a high correlation between the actual and estimated values. The maximum extraction yield and protein content were achieved when the conditions were set at pH of 9.02, stirring time of 4.02 h, and extraction temperature of 90.6°C. Under these optimum conditions, the predicted protein extracted from rice bran was 43.03% (moisture <13.0%), with an extraction yield of 15.9%. The findings of this study suggested that this protocol can enhance the utilization of rice bran and might be employed on a large scale in the food industry to exploit the nutritional source

Isolation an agar degradation Bacillus sp. AT6 and preliminary application for seaweed saccharification

Background: Agar is a common polysaccharide found in nature. However, agar is strongly resisted to the degradation processing, leading to limitation of its application in various areas. Thus, finding an effective solution for agar saccharification significantly improves the economically effects of agar based substrates.Methods: Soil samples were collected from TienPhong Forestry Ltd. Company, ThuyXuan District, ThuaThien Hue province, Vietnam. Potential agar degrading bacteria were screened on a mineral salt agar medium. The isolate was identified based on 16S rRNA nucleotide sequence, morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics. Agarase production was evaluated by modification culture conditions including incubation time, shaking speed, and initial inoculum size. Molecular mass of extracellular agarase was determined by native SDS-PAGE. The effect of pH, temperature, metal ions, and organic solvents were conducted for enzyme characterization. Application of enzyme was investigated on seaweed saccharification.Result: An agar degrading bacterial strain was isolated from soils and identified as Bacillus sp. AT6. Maximal agarase accumulation obtained in the culture containing an inoculum size of 10% (v/v), shaking speed of 210 rpm, and 96 hours incubation. The agarase revealed a single band on zymogram analysis with an apparent molecular weight of 180 kDa. The optimal temperature and pH were 40°C and pH 8.0, respectively. All tested metal ions and organic solvents partially decreased enzyme activity. Treatment seaweed by agarase resulted in reducing sugars release present in the reaction, indicating the saccharification of seaweed was succeeded.Conclusion: Bacillus sp. AT6 is a new report of agarolytic bacteria that produces extracellular agarase enzymes. The present results promise strain AT6 is a great candidate for agar saccharification for industrial application

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN VIET NAM

Microfinance plays an important role in the nation's financial inclusive system. Therefore, the development of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) increasingly receives the attention of governments, especially in developing countries. In which, financial sustainability is one of the determinants which measures the development of microfinance institutions (MFIs). In this research, the institutionalist approach is applied with the purpose of developing empirical evidence for the determinants that affect the financial sustainability of MFIs in Viet Nam. Financial sustainability is analyzed through the evaluation criteria of the investors and the wholesale lending organizations. The Fixed Effect Model is applied to determine the factors that affect the financial sustainability of MFIs in Viet Nam. Quantitative results show that the financial sustainability of MFIs is governed by five factors, including (i) the growth rate of MFIs’ outstanding loans, (ii) the efficiency of MFIs’ performance, (iii) the ratio of borrowers to the number of staffs of MFIs with a positive impact; (iv) the debt-to-equity ratio of MFIs; and (v) the incremental cost per client of the MFIs with negative effec

TÀI NGUYÊN VỊ THẾ VÙNG BỜ KHÁNH HÒA: TIỀM NĂNG VÀ TRIỂN VỌNG

Coastal area in Khanh Hoa Province belongs to Coastal South Central Region, where the Vietnam mainland juts out farthest into the west of the East Sea, and has a special relationship in space with the offshore Spratly islands, the geo-strategic Highlands and economic - political centre of Ho Chi Minh City. This coastal area is close to the sloping and deep continental shelf; possesses the diverse landforms and complex spatial structure with the systems of peninsula, islands, bays, lagoons and river mouths etc. that creates enormous potential for geo-natural position resources, of which highlights are the values of coastal bays and islands. In the geo-economic position resources, Khanh Hoa coastal area has great potential to build the base for exploiting offshore resources, establish large  marine economic zones, and develop the economy of marine services, especially the port - navigation and coastal ecotourism. In the geo-political position resources, this is one of leading sites for defending and protecting the country from sea, and ensuring the sovereignty and national interests in the East Sea including the direct administration of Spratly island district. The detailed investigation and assessment of the position resources in this coastal area will be an important scientific basis for the sea and island development in Khanh Hoa province.Vùng bờ tỉnh Khánh Hòa nằm ở duyên hải Nam Trung Bộ, thuộc phần nhô ra xa  nhất của đất liền Việt Nam ra vùng giữa bờ tây Biển Đông, có quan hệ đặc biệt về không gian với quần đảo xa bờ Trường Sa, vùng địa bàn chiến lược Tây Nguyên và trung tâm kinh tế - chính trị thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Đây là vùng bờ có thềm lục địa phía ngoài sâu và dốc; hình thể và cấu trúc không gian đa dạng và phức tạp với hệ thống các bán đảo, đảo, vũng vịnh, đầm và cửa sông ... tạo ra tiềm năng to lớn về tài nguyên địa - tự nhiên, mà nổi bật là giá trị của hệ thống các vũng vịnh và đảo ven bờ. Về tài nguyên địa - kinh tế, vùng bờ Khánh Hòa có tiềm năng lớn xây dựng cơ sở hậu cần khai thác tài nguyên biển xa, xây dựng các cơ sở kinh tế biển lớn, phát triển kinh tế dịch vụ biển, đặc biệt là cảng - hàng hải và du lịch sinh thái biển. Về tài nguyên địa - chính trị, đây là một trong những vị trí có vai trò quan trọng trong việc phòng thủ và bảo vệ đất nước từ biển, đảm bảo chủ quyền và lợi ích quốc gia trên Biển Đông, trong đó có việc trực tiếp quản lý huyện đảo Trường Sa. Việc điều tra, đánh giá chi tiết tài nguyên vị thế vùng bờ sẽ là cơ sở khoa học quan trọng để phát triển biển đảo tỉnh Khánh Hòa

Biomimetic Superhydrophobic Materials for Environmental Applications

Environmental pollution has been one of the people’s most significant concerns for decades. In today’s industrialized and modernized society, the problem of environmental pollution has become more and more serious, directly affecting the sustainable development of each country. The unique surface properties of materials and interfaces produced by biomimetic approaches can be leveraged to create practical solutions to challenging environmental issues. Among them, superhydrophobic materials get a lot of attention because of their exceptional capacities in various environmental applications such as oil-water separation, membrane-based water purification and desalination, biofouling prevention, high-performance vapor condensation, and atmospheric water capture. This chapter reviews and discusses the fundamental principles of superhydrophobicity, recent works in preparing superhydrophobic surfaces, their potential environmental applications, and the challenges confronted in their new applications

THE IMPACT OF INNOVATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE SPILLOVER EFFECT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Purpose of the study: Innovation is seen as the key to improving quality and productivity, thereby promoting competition and economic growth. This study analyzes the impact of innovation on economic growth through various measures, such as research and development spending, the number of researchers, number of patents as well as trademark registrations. Research results are evidence to recommend policies for intellectual-based economic growth. Methodology: Literature review and empirical analysis conducted in the study. The empirical method is a two-step System Generalize Methods of Moments (GMM), aiming at reliable results. Accessing the World Bank Database, research data from 64 developed and developing countries are collected from 2006 to 2014. Main Findings: The empirical findings show that innovation plays a crucial contribution in promoting economic growth, similar to national openness and government spending on education. This study also finds a positive impact on foreign investment flows and their spillover role in enhancing the correlation between innovation and economic growth. Applications of this study: The findings of this study focus on the contributions of innovation, foreign direct investment inflows, and other macro factors that can be enforced to improve economic growth by policymakers. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study uses different measures of innovation, including inputs such as the number of researchers, research and development expenditure, and outputs as the number of patents and number of trademark registrations. Empirical findings are found consistently, thus confirming that innovation is very important for economic growth. The study also shows convincing evidence confirming the positive contribution of foreign direct investment as well as its spillover effect on innovation and economic growth

Embedding Sustainable Consumption into Higher Education in Vietnam

Changing in the way that human produces and consumes are indispensable to achieve sustainable consumption. All of the countries in developed economies, economies in transition and developing economies should promote sustainable consumption. This will require larger changes in society. Higher education plays a vital role in promoting understanding, awareness of professors, staff members and students of sustainable consumption. Through higher education, these people would be positively change their mind about this issue. National Economics University (NEU) is one of the leading university in economics in Vietnam as a case study. Students graduated from the university will be future experts, leaders and businessmen. After graduation, as academic citizens with acquainted knowledge and skills, they will influence the economic and social changes though their business and private purchasing habits and decisions. Using data from the University, this paper will reveal the current landscape of sustainable consumption at National Economics University through the years. In order to embed this issues into education, the university should incorporate sustainable consumption into the curriculum, create and implement a sustainability plan and adjust teaching method to encourage students asking questions, analyzing, thinking critically and making decisions toward sustainable consumption. Keywords: Embedding sustainable consumption, higher education DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-18-12 Publication date:June 30th 201