The relationship between sustainable growth and public investment, considered one of the key factors, is a topic of interest in the context of globally adopted sustainable development strategies and current budgetary constraints, especially in the case of tight budgets in developing countries, which constrain public investment more than current expenditure, for political or other reasons. Although there are endogenous growth patterns that incorporate public spending as a factor that promotes growth, the findings in the empirical literature provide contradictory results. The study is an empirical investigation into the effects of public investment on sustainable economic growth in emerging EU and Central European countries. For the period 1995–2019, the research shows that, in most of the countries included in the sample, the long-term impact of a public capital shock on GDP is estimated to be negative. The analysis of the effect of public investment on sustainable economic growth was performed by applying the VAR model and impulse response functions, the results being confirmed by estimating the accumulated multiplier to obtain the GDP response to a shock equal to a standard deviation of public capital.

Although the regulatory framework and the conceptualization of the circular economy are still under development, a key role is assigned to the circular economy in the sense of saving resources, minimizing, and managing waste, reducing environmental degradation, while achieving beneficial economic and social results. This paper aims to highlight the impact of the circular economy on sustainable economic growth, by reviewing the specialized literature and impact studies. The transition to a global circular economy has gradually gained political attention, with the aim of promoting the circular economy by exploring synergies by working with other countries to achieve material circularity and, ultimately, decoupling resource use from macroeconomic growth. The result of the research reveals the existence of synergies between the circular economy and sustainable economic growth and the fact that the circular economy can lead to sustainable economic growth or well-being. These estimated positive effects at the global level cannot be generalized to the level of individual economies, due to the specificity of the sectors that support their economy and the degree of harmonization with the practices of the circular economy.

Public investment projects must be linked to the priorities of Cohesion Policy and the Sustainable Development Strategy, highlighting the importance of the investment process and the allocation of funding sources. Therefore, steps such as the evaluation, selection and prioritization of public investment projects are key elements in the public investment process, in order to create a stronger and more sustainable future in the face of crises. This paper aims to clarify some issues related to the current challenges of allocating financial resources for public investment in the context of global economic crises. Public investment management makes the difference in making quality public investment and progress in achieving sustainable development goals. However, the present reality shows that ensuring the efficient management of public investment projects will always encounter difficulties, of which the most threatening are considered to be represented by global economic crises and more recently by the COVID 19 pandemic crisis, through their widespread effects on economies. Therefore, strengthening public investment management must be a priority in public investment policies to maximize the impact of available public resources.