Asan Ali Golam Hassan

Consumers' dietary habits have evolved significantly, with an increased emphasis on consuming healthy fruits and vegetables. Chinese agricultural products are also being sold more frequently within the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) area, which represents a substantial market for Chinese fruits and vegetables. However, despite this, China has not increased its exports of fruits and vegetables to RCEP countries, and this trend is reflected in the overall growth pattern. Consequently, the composition of China’s agricultural exports has undergone notable changes. Within the framework of the RCEP, China engages in trade with other member countries. However, the fruits and vegetables exported to these markets have not yielded significant economic benefits. This study may assist China and RCEP member nations in identifying effective strategies to facilitate the trade of fruits and vegetables as a means of economic cooperation. Furthermore, calculations of the agglomeration margin contribution over the sample period, using the logarithmic difference method, indicate that the growth in China’s fruit and vegetable exports to Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, and New Zealand was primarily driven by the intensive margin, contributing 107%, 134%, 116%, 124%, 119%, and 132%, respectively.

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

In the period following the military operation against insurgents in the Swat district during 2009–10, the Pakistani government, with support from international organizations, initiated a comprehensive program aimed at the rehabilitation and reintegration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). This research study utilizes the Delphi method to gather data through face-to-face interviews with officials involved in the rehabilitation efforts. The analysis revealed a range of challenges, such as security threats, infrastructural deficiencies, bureaucratic complexities, educational system revival, unmet donor commitments, financial constraints, weakened local governance, and communication breakdowns. Despite these obstacles, strategic interventions have ameliorated the IDPs’ conditions, including enhanced security, temporary infrastructure, international partnerships, makeshift educational provisions, and a dedicated rehabilitation budget. Nevertheless, the full rehabilitation of IDPs remains an unachieved goal. This article suggests that successfully reintegrating affected communities requires innovative strategies tailored to Pakistan’s unique socio-structural context, which could serve as a model for similar situations globally.

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

Pertanika Journal information and guidelines

This study attempted to develop a happiness index tool for evaluating rehabilitation initiatives used to reinstate returnees at district Swat, Pakistan. The Happiness Index (HI) tool compares two periods, i.e., HI before rehabilitation (BR) and HI after rehabilitation (AR). The returnees’ happiness index (RHI) is also compared with Pakistan’s Happiness Index to identify the difference. Data for this study were elicited from 382 respondents through a structured survey questionnaire. The results show that after rehabilitation (AR), the returnees’ happiness index improved from 3.89 to 5.36, which is still less than the world happiness index of Pakistan, i.e., 5.65 in 2019. This study concluded that rehabilitation projects had a significantly positive impact on the HI of the returnees. However, more effective and sustainable initiatives are required to align the RHI to the HI of Pakistan. Further, the RHI tool adopted by this study is significant for measuring the happiness of the marginalized and affected people in Pakistan and beyond.

The research examined this asymmetric effect between the interrelationship of the interbank rate on the external competitiveness purchasing power represented by the real effective exchange rate for Malaysia and Thailand using monthly data covering the period of 1994 until 2020. The empirical findings confirms an asymmetric effect between interbank rate and real effective exchange rate based on the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag estimates. The research also finds a unidirectional asymmetric causal relationship running from real effective exchange rate on interbank rate Thailand, which indicate the monetary policy has a direct relationship on interbank rate volatility. While in Malaysia, there is no causality running between both variables since the country has proposed several soft monetary policies and more concentrating on the short-term borrowing by improving the tight money supply circulation based on the domestic inflation, global economic, and financial market volatility. Therefore, the research recommends a specific need of monetary stabilizer policy to stabilize both countries’ currencies and put more effort to liberalize the foreign exchange rate system in a globalized economy.

This study aimed to analyse financial liberalisation, political stability, and economic determinants of Kenya’s real economic growth using time series data over the period of 1970–2016. The authors specified quadratic and interactive models to be estimated by employing a quantile regression analysis. The traditional and quantile unit root test was used in testing the stationarity issue. The co-integration findings indicated that the capital account openness and financial development impede on real economic growth; and the political stability also had potential influence on the real economic growth of Kenya. Interestingly, there is a nonlinear U-shape link between financial development and real economic growth that undermined the real economic growth at its onset, but as it advanced, it enhanced the growth of the country in the long run. The policymakers should ensure that the capital account is more liberalised so that it will continue to stimulate the financial development. In the same way, the liberalisation of the domestic financial market should be taken in earnest to overcome the negative effects of financial repression in totality, while maintaining the stable political atmosphere.