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This study is to examine how FDI and green economic growth are related in Southeast Asian economies. It also attempts to find out the role of fiscal policy development in the relationship between FDI and green growth in the economies of the region. For this purpose, a dynamic panel threshold model is used for the data over the period 2000–2018. The main results show that FDI has a positive impact on the progress of green growth in these economies, with a stronger impact in the group of Southeast Asian economies with high fiscal development. This result confirms the pollution halo hypothesis, which states that FDI can promote green growth in a country. Aligning economic priorities to improve green fiscal policies, reforming fiscal integration programs, planning for green job creation, and implementing policies to attract FDI are recommended as important policy implications over the COVID-19 period.

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to analyze the sustainable inward FDI pattern of Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThis paper intends to analyze the sustainable FDI pattern of Vietnam using the gravity theory and panel data approach for the annual data over the period of 2007–2020.FindingsVietnamese FDI volume is positively affected by political and social factors, globalization and green energy consumption, while geographical distance is a major obstacle to the increase of FDI inflows of the country.Practical implicationsAs the main practical policy implications, issuing policies for sustainable economic growth, launching the novel strategy of green FDI neighborhood policy and regionalism through free trade agreements are recommended.Originality/valueTo the best of author's knowledge, there has not been any in-depth academic study focusing on the Vietnam's sustainable FDI. In addition, three robustness checks have been conducted to ensure the validation of empirical findings.

PurposeIn the recent decades, the green projects have suffered from serious lack of investment, highlighting the major role of green financing to attract private investors to these projects. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the economic impacts of green bond (GB) market in 37 Asian economies.Design/methodology/approachTo empirically analyze the impacts of issued GBs on different macroeconomic variables of 37 Asian countries, the co-integration and causality approaches are employed to analyze the data for the period of 2002–2018.FindingsThe primary findings indicated the presence of a unidirectional causal direction running from inflation rate, inward FDI, governance indicator, and human development index to issued GBs for the sample of Asian economies that were analyzed. Regarding Group I (higher and upper-middle income Asian countries), there are bi-directional relationships between the GB and other variables, indicating that the policies of governments in each variable influence other variables, whereas for Group II (low and lower-middle income Asian countries), there are uni-directional relationships running from HDI, governance indicator, and inflation rate to GBs, but only bi-directional causal relationships.Practical implicationsIn Asian economies with a lower per capita income, implementing policies to enhance the efficiency of issued GBs so that they have a positive impact on economic activities and human development may be an appropriate strategy with major policy implications. In this way, financial system improvement, financing rural electrification and the transition to electric vehicles through GBs are recommended, while for the case of high- and upper-middle-income economies in Asia, simplifying capital flows from abroad to the GB market can be considered a practical policy.Originality/valueThis study contributes to current green finance research by studying the effects of several variables on the GB market for the instance of Asian countries with low and lower-middle incomes, as well as high-upper middle incomes.

PurposeThe need to improve energy efficiency as an essential factor for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through green financing is one of the most important issues worldwide. It is even more important for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries because of their potential for economic growth and the challenge of their environmental problems. This paper therefore addresses the question of whether and how green finance (with the proxy of issued green bonds [GBs]) promotes energy efficiency (with the proxy of energy intensity) in the ASEAN member countries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper runs a two-stage generalized method of moments (GMM) system model for the quarterly data over the period 2017–2020. It also uses a linear interaction model to explore how the pandemic may affect the relationship between green finance and energy efficiency in this region.FindingsThe main results only demonstrate the short-term negative impact of GBs on energy intensity. Furthermore, per capita income, economic integration and renewable energy supply can be used as potential variables to reduce energy intensity, while modernization in ASEAN increases energy intensity. Establishment of digital green finance, long-term planning of a green finance market, trade liberalization and policies to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 are recommended as golden policy implications.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study has several limitations. First, it accounts for explanatory variables by following a number of previous studies. This may lead to omissions or errors. Second, the empirical estimates were conducted for 160 observations due to the repositioning of GBs in ASEAN, which is not bad but not good for an empirical study.Originality/valueTo the best of authors' knowledge, there has not been any in-depth study focusing on the relationship between energy efficiency and green financing for the case of ASEAN economies.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance and agency cost on firm performance by using the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) model and data panel analysis on Vietnamese listed firms in the construction & real estate sector in the period of 2015 - 2021. Empirical results indicate that asset turnover ratio, ownership structure, board size, percentage of female board members, total assets, and revenue growth are positively related to firm performance. We find that an emerging market like Vietnam is accepting the participation of women on the board of directors quite positively. In contrast, sales and administrative expenses to revenue ratio, short-term debt to assets ratio, and percentage of independent board members are negatively correlated with profitability. It seems that independent board members do not have much significance in decision-making, and are greatly influenced by group interests. The study also provides some recommendations to improve firm performance by addressing corporate governance and agency cost issues.

Objective: The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivations of Vietnam’s outward FDI.   Theoretical framework: We extend the gravity model proposed by by Tinbergen (1962) and developed by Ryan W. Tang et. al (2022); Correa da Cunha et. al (2022), Hui-Ching Hsieh et. al (2019) to evaluate the influence of macroeconomic factors of Vietnam and the host countries on the volume of Vietnam’s OFDI flow.   Method:  This paper intends to analyze the motivations of outward FDI pattern of Vietnam using the gravity theory and panel data of 15 main OFDI host economies during a 2007-2021 period.   Results and discussion:  The regression results confirm that the size of the economy, social index, common borderline and level of economic integration have positive influence on OFDI flows of Vietnam. Meanwhile, geographical distance has negative effect on OFDI flows   Implications:  As practical policy recommendations, it is suggested to implement measures aimed at enhancing trade relations and to introduce a new strategy regarding the policy for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in neighboring regions.   Originality:  To the best of author’s knowledge, there has not been any in-depth academic study focusing on the Vietnam’s outward FDI. In addition, robustness checks have been conducted to ensure the validation of empirical findings.

This study investigates the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), political stability, and coal efficiency in Vietnam using time series analysis from 1985 to 2021. Results indicate that political stability positively influences coal efficiency, encouraging investments in cleaner technologies. However, inward FDI exhibits negative impacts on coal efficiency, indicating limited contributions to greener projects. Moreover, a 1% increase in sustainable power generation significantly improves coal efficiency. To enhance coal efficiency, practical policies are needed, including fostering a stable political environment, incentivizing FDI in energy-efficient technologies, collaborating for technology transfer, investing in research and development, and promoting sustainable power generation. These strategies can aid Vietnam in reducing coal reliance and transitioning towards a more sustainable energy landscape.

Introduction : Patient satisfaction is one of the most important components of measuring healthcare quality.Objectives : The study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the patient satisfaction scale with the quality of health services and its associated factors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect data on patient satisfaction with 301 outpatients at one polyclinic in Hanoi, Vietnam.Results: The overall outpatient satisfaction was 53.5%. There were five factors (facilities, services provision results, information transparency and administrative procedures, accessibility, and interaction and communication of staff) including one major factor with high Eigenvalues coefficient, 22.5 for satisfaction with facility, and four others with lower Eigenvalues coefficient, 3.2, 2.0, 1.5, and 1.2 for satisfaction with service provision results, information transparency and administrative procedures, accessibility, and interaction and communication of staff respectively. All satisfaction-factors show internal consistency reliability, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of over 0.9. The insured are 3.5 times (95% CI: 1.9–6.2) more likely to be satisfied with health services than the uninsured.Conclusion: The patient satisfaction measurement tool should be used for intervention to improve the quality of health services at the clinic.

Health personnel and community workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 emergency response and need to be equipped with adequate knowledge related to epidemics for an effective response. This study aimed to identify the coverage of COVID-19 health information via different sources accessed by health workers and community workers in Vietnam. A cross-sectional study using a web-based survey was carried out from January to February 2020 in Vietnam. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used for recruiting participants. We utilized the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the construct validity of the questionnaire. A higher percentage of participants knew about “Clinical and pathogen characteristics of COVID-19”, compared to “Regulations and policies related to COVID-19”. The percentage of participants accessing the information on “Guidelines and policies on prevention and control of COVID-19” was the lowest, especially among medical students. “Mass media and peer-educators” channels had a higher score of accessing COVID-19 information, compared to “Organizations/ agencies/ associations” sources. Participants consumed most of their COVID-19 information via “Internet, online newspapers, social networks”. Our findings indicate an urgency to re-design training programs and communication activities for a more effective dissemination of information related to the COVID-19 epidemic or epidemics in general.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, and despite the advances in drug development, it is still necessary to develop new plant-derived medicines. Compared with using conventional chemical drugs to decrease the side effects induced by chemotherapy, natural herbal medicines have many advantages. The present study aimed to discover the potential cytotoxicity of ethanol extract and its derived fractions (chloroform, ethyl acetate, butanol, and aqueous) of Adenosma bracteosum Bonati. (A. bracteosum) on human large cell lung carcinoma (NCI-H460) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2). Among these fractions, the chloroform showed significant activity in the inhibition of proliferation of both cancerous cells because of the presence of bioactive compounds including xanthomicrol, 5,4’-dihydroxy-6,7,8,3’-tetramethoxyflavone, and ursolic acid which were clearly revealed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Coherence, and Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence Spectroscopy) analyses. According to the radical scavenging capacity, the 5,4’-dihydroxy-6,7,8,3’-tetramethoxyflavone compound (AB2) exhibited the highest anticancer activity on both NCI-H460 and HepG2 with IC50 values of 4.57 ± 0.32 and 5.67 ± 0.09 µg/mL respectively, followed by the ursolic acid with the lower percent inhibition at 13.05 ± 0.55 and 10.00 ± 0.16 µg/mL, respectively (p < 0.05). Remarkably, the AB2 compound induced to significant increase in the production of reactive oxygen species accompanied by attenuation of mitochondrial membrane potential, thus inducing the activation of caspase-3 activity in both human lung and liver cancer cells. These results suggest that A. bracteosum is a promising source of useful natural products and AB2 offers opportunities to develop the novel anticancer drugs.