Wang Chia-Nan, Nguyen Hoang-Kha, Nhieu Nhat-Luong
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
College of Technology and Design, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
PLoS One. 2025 May 20;20(5):e0324538. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0324538. eCollection 2025.
The Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), a major 21st-century initiative, aims to revive the historic Silk Road by connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa through a network of trade and cultural exchange routes. This study aims to assess sustainable development across sixteen countries situated in South Asia, West Asia, and Africa-regions that are central to the SREB but face diverse environmental and socio-economic challenges. To achieve this, a novel hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach is proposed, combining the Method based on the Removal Effects of Criteria (MEREC) and Operational Competitiveness Ratings Analysis (OCRA). The MEREC method is used to determine objective weights for sustainability indicators by evaluating the impact of each criterion's exclusion, while OCRA is employed to evaluate and rank countries based on both beneficial and non-beneficial indicators. The findings reveal significant disparities in sustainability performance across the studied countries. Israel ranked highest in sustainability, followed by Sri Lanka and Nepal, while India showed the lowest performance. These results provide valuable benchmarks and strategic insights for regional policy planning and sustainable development efforts within the SREB framework.
丝绸之路经济带（SREB）是21世纪的一项重大倡议，旨在通过贸易和文化交流路线网络连接亚洲、欧洲和非洲，复兴历史悠久的丝绸之路。本研究旨在评估位于南亚、西亚和非洲的16个国家的可持续发展情况，这些地区是丝绸之路经济带的核心，但面临着各种环境和社会经济挑战。为实现这一目标，提出了一种新颖的混合多标准决策方法，该方法结合了基于标准去除效应的方法（MEREC）和运营竞争力评级分析（OCRA）。MEREC方法通过评估每个标准排除的影响来确定可持续性指标的客观权重，而OCRA则用于根据有益和非有益指标对国家进行评估和排名。研究结果显示，在所研究的国家中，可持续性表现存在显著差异。以色列在可持续性方面排名最高，其次是斯里兰卡和尼泊尔，而印度的表现最差。这些结果为丝绸之路经济带框架内的区域政策规划和可持续发展努力提供了有价值的基准和战略见解。
