The accelerated development of the global economy is leading to increasing consumption of natural resources. The exploitation of resources is moving at an accelerated pace, while their availability is decreasing. The biggest problem is the depletion of non-renewable and limited resources that are the carriers of the raw material base of energy and manufacturing industry, which calls into question the preservation of energy stability and efficiency at the global level. Uncontrolled industrial growth, accompanied by increasingly intensive depletion of non-renewable natural resources, especially fossil fuels, has caused enormous pollution of the environment and the entire planet. In the conditions of depletion of natural resources, negative climate changes accompanied by global warming and a serious threat to the survival of life, it is necessary to adopt and implement the concept of sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development explicitly aims to achieve optimal economic results, while preserving and improving the environment and the social component of development. Natural resources play an extremely important role in achieving economic growth and development. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of renewable energy sources for achieving sustainable development. It is necessary to investigate the importance of renewable and non-renewable natural resources, as well as the factors that affect their exploitation, with the aim of successfully implementing the concept of sustainable development.

Agriculture of the Republic of Serbia is a significant economic branch, due to the specifics of production, tradition and because of the enormous potential that it holds for improving competitive performance and development of the national economy. For this reason, in all strategic documents agriculture is recognised as a vital branch for the development of the national economy, which can be achieved by an increase in productivity and greater foreign exchange, especially with the neighbouring countries. Bearing in mind that agricultural food products represent a very important part of foreign trade of the Republic of Serbia with the countries of the Western Balkans, the goal of the research is to point out the comparative advantages of the Republic of Serbia in the exchange of agricultural and food products with the countries in the region, by applying the Balassa index. The realisation of the principal objective of the research was carried out using the methods of comparative advantage, historical method, trends method, methods of analysis and synthesis. The results of research show that the Republic of Serbia has distinct comparative advantages in relation to the countries in the Western Balkans, with the exception of the Republic of Croatia. The key contribution of this paper lies in providing a clearer insight into the comparative advantages of the Republic of Serbia in foreign trade with the countries in the region, as well as pointing out the priority directions of activities of competent authorities in order to intensify. the agricultural export, especially high quality and products at a higher level of processing.

Transition in Serbia started in 2000 and is still in progress. Achieved reforms in economic development has influenced the change of economic structure in favor of service sector, which has the largest sectoral participation in the creation of gross domestic product. Tourism has an important place within the service sector, and has always represented a great opportunity for development of Serbia. Though, in recent decades tourism development in Serbia has not attached great importance, which resulted in low competitiveness of Serbian tourism in the international market. The aim of this paper is to analyze trends in the tourism of Serbia since 2000, to indicate on the competitive position of Serbian tourism in the world, as well as on the necessity of improving the development of tourism in order to develop on a sustainable basis.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of human capital, as location determinant for the foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions in the Western Balkan Countries between 2008 and 2016. Apart from the human capital indicators, several location determinants were used as control variables. The hypothesis has been tested by employing correlation and regression analysis. The empirical findings revealed the positive impact of primary education and the negative impact of tertiary education on the inflows. The analysis showed that political stability and control of corruption are more important location determinants than human capital. Therefore, the policy measures should be directed towards the improvement of institutional framework and creating a supporting environment for the FDI inflows.

Agreed upon by the United Nations, the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a framework to tackle the world's most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges in the lead-up to 2030. They provide a network to support business in managing risks and identifying market opportunities. The Sustainable Development Goals have the potential to accelerate innovation and economic growth. However, the ambitious goals will require new models of collaboration between companies, sectors, countries, and regions. The special attention in this paper is given to the analysis of the achieved results in the Western Balkan countries in 2018 measured by the composite indicator such as Sustainable Development Goals Index. The basic research question in the research is: Are all the Western Balkans countries lagging behind the average of the region Eastern Europe and Central Asia in achieving the sustainable development goals?

With the rapid rise of instability in the global economy and more intensive depletion of resources, there is a need to adopt a new economic model that is becoming a business imperative. In order to improve resource performance, many companies have taken action to find ways to reuse products or their components and restore inputs of production, materials, energy and labour. Many companies today have begun to use the principles of the circular economy to create products that are more durable, easy to reuse or recycle, and more profitable. Having in mind that the textile industry is one of the most environmentally harmful industries, the purpose of this paper is to point out the advantages that the transformation of the traditional (linear) production model into a circular model of industrial activities has for increasing the environmental sustainability of this industry.