Sea-level rise (SLR) is considered one of the most serious consequences of climate change. The risk of SLR compels legal consideration of this phenomenon related to many interrelated domains including the Law of the Sea. The Western Pacific region contains the most low-lying coastal countries and small island States seriously affected by SLR in the world. This research has been carried out as a contribution paper on the State practice in the Western Pacific region to the topic of “Sea-level rise in relation to international law” conducted by the Study Group of the United Nations International Law Commission in the period of 2020-2021. It aims to summarize the consequences of SLR for the Western Pacific States and outline their legal positions in relation to the sea-level rise. It also discusses specific issues, challenges and opportunities facing the Western Pacific States in supporting the maintenance of maritime baselines and limits notwithstanding physical changes caused by SLR.

The new Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (“TPNW”) opened for signature on September 20, 2017. It will enter into force in 90 days after getting 50 instruments of ratification. This fact shows that Asia-Pacific is in the forward position to totally eliminate nuclear weapons in the world for the peace, security and human well-being. How to move forward the process of ratifying the TPNW? In order to clarify this question, the author will focus on the following three parts: 1) Asia-Pacific and International Humanitarian Law; 2) Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons - a step towards the nuclear disarmament; and 3) Ratification of TPNW.

Although country-of-origin has been a controversial topic in literature, there has been little research effort to explain the nature linkage between country-of-origin and perceived quality from consumers in emerging markets. Drawing on the notion of country-of-origin, this study proposes the concept of product-country-image which is operationalized with the three components of cognitive, affective and conative. Structural equation modeling is employed to explore the relationship between the product-country-image and perceived quality. The findings indicate that only ‘affective components’ are positively related to ‘conative components’ among three pairs. What is more, structural equitation modeling demonstrated that the influence of product-country image on perceived quality is simultaneously regardless of the level of consumers’ familiarity with a foreign country’s product. Using data collected from 348 Vietnamese consumers, this study generates new insights for academics and practitioners.

The South China Sea has long been regarded as a major source of tension and instability in Pacific Asia. To clarify the position of claimants is a research task for creating the confidence building measures and promoting efforts to manage the possible conflicts in the region. The purpose of this article is to address the Vietnamese position on the sovereignty disputes over the Paracels and Spratlys, and maritime zones in the South China Sea. The Vietnamese position will be examined from three aspects: (1) the sovereignty of the Paracels and the Spratlys; (2) the maritime zones around these islands; and (3) the settlement of disputes in the South China Sea.

Project manager plays a very important role in the success of any project. The primary duty of the project manager is to combine the outcomes or results of the various processes and activities of project management into a systematic project management strategy or plan for the project. In the construction industry, a lack of motivation is an urgent problem for many project managers in construction and engineering projects. Lack of motivation affects the quality and productivity of jobs, reducing profits and growth for companies, businesses, contractors or organizations that rely on human resources. The reasons for this lack of motivation are diverse ranging from salary to culture to life and working environment, among others. Through surveys and data analysis using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability and EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis), our research scaled the factors affecting work motivation of project managers in the construction industry in Vietnam. The research results identified six major groups of relevant factors including (i) salary and benefits, (ii) work environment, (iii) promotion opportunities, (iv) organizational culture, (v) interest in the job, and (vi) relationship with the organization. From there, this paper contributed useful information as well as measures for businesses, companies, contractors or organizations in the construction industry.

Although networking behavior is an effective job search method to students, far too little attention has been paid to mechanisms explaining the antecedents and networking behavior. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the effect of the HEXACO personality dimensions on graduated students’ job search networking behavior through their network size. A survey of 773 participants was conducted to assess personality traits, network size, and networking behavior. All constructs in the study were measured by 5-point Likert scales. This study employed a structural equation model to examine the proposed conceptual model and the correlations among variables. Results showed that the personality of emotionality negatively influence students’ network size, while extraversion and agreeableness are positively associated with the scope of their social network. Second, the findings confirmed that network size is directly related to the level of looking-for job behavior, particularly networking behavior. Finally, our results explored that network size played the mediating effect on how personality traits affect networking behavior. These findings suggest that network size is a dynamic mechanism that helps to understand the correlation between personality traits and job search networking behavior. The theoretical and practical implication of the study, as well as the future research direction were discussed.

The research purpose of the article is to evaluate the effects of the internal control components on the effectiveness of internal control of transport construction enterprises in Vietnam, on the basis of which we made recommendations to contribute to improving the effectiveness of internal control. Sample was collected from Vietnamese medium and large transport construction enterprises, the total number of sample questionnaires sent was 400, 330 filled-up questionnaires was collected and 250 was used for the study purpose. Quantitative research method was used for the study with the help of the SPSS software. The variables in the model are as follows: the dependent variable is the effectiveness of internal control, 5 independent variables are: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, communication, and monitoring. The results of the analysis explain 80.4% variation as a result of the effect of internal control on the Vietnamese transport construction enterprise. All five components positively affect the effectiveness of internal controls in the order of influence, which are: control activities, control environment, communication, risk assessment and monitoring. This study contributes in providing more empirical evidence about the effects of internal control components on the effectiveness of internal control of transport construction enterprises in Vietnam. The study has proposed a number of recommendations to help transport construction enterprises improve control activities and contribute towards improving the effectiveness of internal control.

This paper explores the barriers to derivative accounting disclosures in Vietnamese companies and ranks their relative importance for effective and efficient remedies. The Delphi technique was applied to get agreement of panel of experts on the measurement of factors hindering disclosure. Unstructured questionnaires were first sent to twelve experts who had both practical experience and academic knowledge in the field to get ideas on the obstructions to derivatives disclosure. The structured questionnaire was designed to get their agreement on barriers to derivative accounting disclosures. The data analysis with mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and quartile has been implemented to ensure the unanimity. Market-related factors, legislation, accountants’ attributes, managers’ attributes, information technology and communication, and on-site training were the six major obstacles agreed upon by the experts during their in-depth interviews. Then, these factors were ranked by applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The findings confirmed the priority of information technology and communication, which held the greatest weight. Legislation ranked second, followed by market-related factors and on-site training, which explained the impediments to derivatives disclosure. Managers’ and accountants’ attributes had the least contribution to the barriers to derivative disclosures. The results have important implications for actions to enhance corporate derivative disclosures in Vietnam.

The study seeks to explore the factors affecting the access to credits by individual customers at commercial banks in Tra Vinh province, Vietnam. Based on these results, the author proposes solutions to further improve the ability to serve individual customers at commercial banks in the province in the future. The study was conducted with a method of collecting primary data of 300 individual customers including 150 people with access to credits and 150 people without accessing to credits at six commercial banks in Tra Vinh Province, Viet Nam – Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bank for Foreign Trade Commercial Bank, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, Asia Commercial Bank in Tra Vinh, Sai Gon Commercial Joint Stock Bank, and Bank of East Asia. The author has used binary regression methods, and the study found that seven factors affecting the ability of individual customers to access capital, namely, career, qualifications, collaterals, incomes, documents, loan and business plans, and experience. In particular, occupation, experience, and documents are the most influential factors. From the above results, the author proposes policy implications to improve individual customers’ access to credits at commercial banks in Tra Vinh province in the near future.

The study examines the impact of organizational rewards, procedure justice, and perceived supervisor support on perceived organizational support, and examine the impact of perceived organizational support on affective commitment to the organization in the logistic enterprises as well. Quantitative research is applied to measure relationships by regression analysis with SPSS. The research data was collected by convenient method from 180 employees who work in different departments in the logistics industry. The study results in the model 1 found that organizational rewards, procedure justice, and perceived supervisor support have a positive relationship to the perceived organizational support. The study results in the model 2 also found that perceived organizational support has strong impact on the affective commitment to the organization. The study results contribute to both management theory and management practice. For the management theory aspect, the authors suggest that perceived organizational support should be considered the key antecedent of affective commitment about which researchers should pay more attention as a concept. Based on the research results, the authors also recommend for the management practice that managers should pay attention to the implementation of rewards, procedure justice, and supervisor support to increase the perceived organizational support and affective commitment in the logistic enterprises.

This study exemines the roles of corporate social activity (CSR) and executive compensation structure on the pricing of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) with special focus on the role of CSR in reducing the level of information asymmetry between managers and future shareholders of issuing firms through SEOs. This study also investigates the interaction between executive compensation structure and CSR on the discounting of SEOs. We use a sample of 2,102 seasoned equity offerings of U.S. firms with CSR scores from 1995 to 2015 in our OLS fixed effect regression analysis. The results show that issuing firms with high CSR are more likely to expericence a lower degree of the SEO discount. The results also document a positive association between CSR and a high proportion of equity-based compensation of issuing firms’ executives. The findings of this paper confirm that CSR attenuates the impact of information asymmetry and the pre-SEO price uncertainty on the pricing of the offers and hence the SEO discount. Furthermore, CSR reinforces the impact of executive firmrelated wealth on the discounting of seasoned equity offerings. It appears that firm-related wealth motivates managers to actively engage in reducing information asymmetry activities before SEOs, thereby decreasing the SEO discount.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of trade integration on business cycle synchronization for the East Asian countries during 2005- 2017 based on the endogeneity hypothesis of Optimum Currency Area criteria. We test the determinants of business cycles by calculating bilateral trade, financial integration, and business cycle synchronization. Applying the system Generalized Method of Moments for dynamic panel data models, the results show that business cycle synchronization is highly associated with trade and financial integration. These findings confirm the endogeneity hypothesis that more trade integration will mitigate asymmetric shocks, and have a positive impact on the business cycle synchronization. The increased trade intensity and financial linkage lead to more correlated business cycles in East Asia. Apart from trade and financial integration, the trade structure differential, monetary policy similarity also influence the business cycle comovement. The significantly negative impact of trade structure differential on business cycle synchronization suggests that countries with less similar structures are more likely to undergo asymmetric shocks. The results also indicate that monetary policy matters for output comovement. This study recommends that the East Asian countries should focus on bilateral trade as well as financial integration with each other to reap benefits from the integration process.

The paper investigates the factors that affect the demand for a voluntary audit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. A structured questionnaire survey of 284 SMEs was employed, preceded by in-depth interviews with auditors and SMEs’ managers. The research used logistic regression estimator to address econometric issues and to improve the accuracy of the regression coefficients. The results show that the degree of director’s view on voluntary audit, related stakeholder, degree of recommendation, and firm size have a statistically significant positive effect on audit decisions of SMEs while degree of audit fee has a statistically significant negative effect, and degree of subjective norm does not affect. This indicated that SMEs are more likely to have an external audit if they have some typical features: it is becoming larger in terms of size, and the directors consider that the audit has a relative benefit outweighing its cost. The research results suggested that Vietnam Government should make a statutory audit of SMEs’ financial statements rather than make it an option for SMEs. The auditing firms were also recommended to actively take their audit services to SMEs rather than waiting for the SMEs’ managers to contact them for their services.

The paper aims to investigate auditors, auditing firms and other external factors that affect quality of information technology audit in Vietnam. We conducted 2 types of data collections including direct and on survey. For direct survey, we sent directly to auditors at the training classes organized by State Securities Exchanges Commission. An online survey was established and Google doc link was provided to the Big4 and non-Big4 auditors. We received 138 survey responses in that 90 auditors came from Big4 and 48 auditors from non-Big4 firms. The data are analyzed using a factor analysis and compare means approaches to illustrate the potential IT audit quality factors and identify differences between two groups of auditors. The results show that independence and accounting knowledge and audit skills are the most important factors. And since external auditors perform many assurance services, the independence is critical. The result also shows that the auditors need to have enough competent and professional skills when conducting an audit, especially within an IT environment that requires high quality. The findings suggest a similar pattern of two groups in the context of Vietnam and some factors of auditors and auditing firms appear to have a statistically significant impact on quality of IT audit.

Environmental pollution and climate change in Vietnam are now becoming a major concern. This situation is increasing the pressure on the companies to improve their social responsibility in production and business activities and disclose the environmental information to meet the requirements of stakeholders. This study investigates the internal and external factors of the company that affects the environmental information disclosure of listed companies on the Vietnam stock market as business sector, firm size, corporate manager perceptions, profitability, financial leverage, community pressure, pressures from stakeholders, government pressure influencing environmental information disclosure. Analytical data collected through the survey of 120 listed companies on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE). By testing Cronbach's Alpha, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and logistic regression analysis, the results of the study show that the level of environmental information disclosure of listed companies on the stock market in Vietnam depends heavily on government regulations, followed by the pressure from stakeholders, community pressure, views of business managers, companies size, business sector, and particularly profitability and financial leverage factors that have a negative relationship with environmental information disclosure.

The study aims to identify the factors affecting employee loyalty in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tra Vinh province, Viet Nam and to find out critical factors affecting the loyalty of employees in SMEs. This is implemented with the method of collecting primary data of 320 employees working at SMEs in 5 districts including: Cau Ngang, Tra Cu, Chau Thanh, Cang Long, Tieu Can) and Tra Vinh City, Viet Nam. Using the multivariate regression method, the researchers have found 6 factors affecting employee loyalty: colleagues, leaders, job characteristics, remuneration policies, organizational culture, and working environment. Particularly, learning opportunities may not be not statistically significant for employees' loyalty towards small and medium-sized enterprises in Tra Vinh province. From the above research results, the authors have proposed implicational piolicies such as: focusing on colleague relationships, improving leadership of business owners, attaching importance to appropriate work arrangement, having appropriate remuneration policies for laborers, building effective organizational culture and working environment to improve employee loyalty at SMEs. From the above policy implications, helping business owners realize the aspirations of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises more closely in the future, in order to sustainably develop the business system in Vietnam.

The paper aims to provide some recommendations to improve the operational capacity of the Tra Vinh Provincial Center of Public Administrative Services and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of management in the State administrative agencies. The study on people's satisfaction towards public services of Tra Vinh Provincial Center of Public Administrative Services was conducted by collecting primary data of 300 people who used public services provided by this Center from September 2018 to November 2018. By using the multivariate regression method, the author found that there were a number of factors affecting people's satisfaction towards public services at the Center, including procedures, service fee, and attitudes of the staff, empathy, staff capacity, and trust. These factors had an impact on people's satisfaction towards public administrative services performed by staff officers from Tra Vinh Provincial Center of Public Administrative Services. Since then, the study has proposed policy implications to improve people's satisfaction on service quality at the Center such as: Develop a flexible charge mechanism of public services; Enhance the sense of responsibility of staff officers; Pay attention to improving administrative procedures; Establish trustworthiness to people; Pay attention to professional improvement; and Build up a friendly and respectful team of staff.

The paper aims to investigate empirical causes of poverty of the Khmer ethnic people and suggest policy implication to help the Khmer ethnic people escape poverty in Tra Vinh province and the Mekong Delta. The study has been conducted with direct interviews with 300 Khmer households living in seven districts and cities in Tra Vinh province and with the use of multivariate regression. The research results show that a number of causes that affect poverty of poor households include lack of capital for production, lack of means of production, poor health and lack of labor, large families, lack of job opportunities or unemployment, and lack of willingness to escape poverty and education. Thus, there should be poverty reduction policy for the poor househlods in the coming time. Based on the current situation and regression results, the authors propose a number of recommendations: 1) Focus on preferential loan policies for poor people 2) Provide occupational training programs for improving incomes for the Khmer ethnic households 3) Build up special infrastructure in the Khmer ethnic areas 4) Focus on promoting cultural and belief institutions in areas of the Khmer ethnic people and 5) Improve and build up healthcare clinics services and facilities.