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This study evaluates resources allocated for risk management by business organisations (financial and non-financial firms) in developing countries, using Zambia as a case study. Primary data collected from 158 organisations were analysed using MegaStat. The findings revealed that the majority (54.5%) of organisations, especially non-financial institutions, only commit resources to risk mitigation on an Adhoc or post-event basis, while 45.5% showed a budgeted approach. A significant part of the budgeted 45.5% was used for risk management activities, and 54.5% was used for regular daily operations. Despite this variation, all organisations engaged reported a significant expenditure on risk management, at least on Adhoc. At 4 degrees of freedom (df), which was one less than the total number of possible outcomes, a non-parametric test for significance yielded a scientific P-value of 1.57e-0.7, (a numerical magnitude of 0.0014, P< 0.05). This suggests that the correlation and pattern of the findings were not random or by chance, but they carried a statistical significance. The study's main findings demonstrate that some business organisations in Zambia and other developing countries incur significant expenditure with a higher portion of their budgets to respond to risk management needs. Business organisations which do not have formal risk structures do so informally due to pressure from emerging business risks. The findings also indicated that financial institutions in developing countries allocate more resources towards risk management than non-financial institutions. The Phi coefficient (degree of association) was 0.486, showing a moderately significant relationship between the variables (risk management and resource allocation). Business organisations in Zambia and other developing nations must develop sound risk mitigation plans and allocate resources for risk management.

This article analyzes the status quo and cooperation mechanism between ASEAN and China, mainly, the non-traditional security issues in the South China Sea space (SCS). The non-traditional security threats confronting the SCS are complex, diverse and enormous. Amongst those are transnational maritime crimes, marine disaster threat, marine ecological environmental threat, and resource scarcity. Recent trends have demonstrated that the established regimes between ASEAN and China, for non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS, are fragmented mainly due to the absence of integrated and long-term mechanisms. Three reasons hinder the acceleration of the cooperation process: interference from outside powers, insufficient mutual political trust between China and ASEAN members, claimants and divergence of interests in advancing the Code of Conduct (COC) in the SCS. This article aims to analyze the problems and the causes existing between China and ASEAN in dealing with non-traditional security cooperation. It also examines the effectiveness of the rules-based cooperation mechanisms and offers a few recommendations. It is argued that ASEAN and China should take advantage of the low sensitivity of non-traditional security issues and high-quality development of the One Belt and One Road Initiative, to construct an integrated framework based on rules jointly and order for multilateral non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS. Three possible and workable measures are recommended to facilitate non-traditional security cooperation between ASEAN and China in the SCS. Both sides, primarily ASEAN member claimants, pursue an excellent willingness to cooperate and could promote functional cooperation, promote successful maritime cooperation modes as long-term cooperation mechanisms in the SCS, focus on strengthening the capacity-building of marine governance, and comprehensively establish a multilateral cooperation mechanism in marine environmental protection and fishery resources management.

This study aims to identify the most influential blockchain types for potential implementation areas in the transforming mobility ecosystem, considering application area-specific needs such as transparency, transaction speed, scalability, energy usage, security, and operating cost. The study demonstrated the hybrid blockchain suitability for most of the 13 distinguished mobility applications, while private and consortium blockchains are found applicable based on the needs of specific use cases. A public blockchain is only found suitable for two of the use cases. Proof of Authority and Proof of Stake matches well with most use cases, while Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance and Proof of Work could be suitable in particular.