**Preface to "Sustainable Economic Development: Challenges, Policies, and Reforms"**

Today's evolving economic landscape has increased the importance of sustainable development issues. Many parts of the world, territories, and societies are now changing at an unprecedented pace in ways that fundamentally affect the markets, people, environment, and biodiversity. Such changes are primarily driven by rapid social and economic developments, economic disparities between countries, the internationalization of production and value chains, industrialization, and globalization in the wider context. The previously established patterns are transforming and bringing new potential risks to the global economy, such as environmental pollution, climate change, economic disruptions, poverty, and food security. International initiatives, such as the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, have been a powerful means to focus the attention, resources, and efforts of most of the countries in the world toward the fight against poverty, promotion of fair trade, support of heavily indebted countries, and the development of infrastructure of various kinds in underdeveloped regions. However, business interests are increasingly frequently interfering with such goals. The major challenge is converging the economic benefits with the urgent need for establishing resilient production chains, social networks, sustainably-operating markets, and environmental protection.

To address the diversity of ongoing changes, the multivariate interactions of economic development, urbanization, digitalization, and other factors of globalization must be studied to reveal their combined effects on the sustainability of the economic, social, and environmental patterns across the continents. The papers included in this book highlight the urgent need for balanced economic development and comprehensive coverage of many sustainability–business areas. Over 90 contributors representing 40 universities and research institutions from seven countries discus a wide range of topics regarding the economic, production, financial, and social factors that influence the various dimensions of sustainability. Their findings are translated into workable approaches and policies for the benefit of the global economy, people, and environment.

> **Vasilii Erokhin, Gao Tianming, Andrei Jean Vasile** *Editors*
