Morning Brief

Dr Oh Ei Sun, Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, discusses the implications of Parti Warisan Sabah’s move to dissociate from Pakatan Harapan, and its interest in contesting for seats in Peninsular Malaysia. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Oh Ei Sun, Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, discusses the implications of Parti Warisan Sabah’s move to dissociate from Pakatan Harapan, and its interest in contesting for seats in Peninsular Malaysia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vietnam recently confirmed Pham Minh Chinh as the country’s next Prime Minister, once again ensuring a smooth transition. Linda Liu, Economist at Maybank Kim Eng discusses Chinh’s priorities and the challenges he needs to deal with. Image credit: Le Minh Ty / Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why is Parti Warisan Sabah disassociating itself from the Pakatan Harapan Plus coalition? The Morning Run speaks with Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, Warisan's President, to find out. We asked him about potential partnerships with Syed Saddiq and MUDA, Warisan's relationship with PH, and whether he want to be Prime Minister. Image credit: Dolly MJ _ Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

Alejandra Grindal, Senior International Economist at Ned Davis Research unpacks President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, and the challenges in pushing it through. Image credit: Lev Radin / Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Due to the pandemic and ensuing economic downturn, salaries stagnated and fresh graduates struggled to get employed. To assure fresh graduates, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad says that they can expect a higher starting salary by the middle of this year. Dr Juita Mohamad, Fellow at Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia discus...

Foreign Minister Dato’ Seri Hishammudin Hussein courted controversy during his recent visit to China, when he referred to his counterpart Wang Yi as an “elder brother.” Despite the apparent faux pas, there were several notable outcomes from the visit, including the establishment of a high-level committee for post-Covid-19 cooperation. We discuss the state of Malaysia-China bilate...

As part of its annual report released last week, Bank Negara Malaysia included a special commentary to explain the role of international reserves. Khoon Goh, Head of Asia Research at ANZ Bank believes Malaysia could be maintaining a higher level of reserves, and gives his outlook and assumptions for the Ringgit. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After the breakup of Umno and Bersatu, other political entities like Gabungan Parti Sarawak have become increasingly important, if Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's Perikatan Nasional coalition hopes to stay in power. After a two-day working visit to Sarawak, the prime minister emphasised what Sarawak had to gain from working with the federal government, saying that it could emerge as one of the most dev...

Paul Cooper, Managing Director of Michael Page Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam discusses the firm’s report on talent trends as a result of the pandemic. Longer-term Cooper expects short-term contractual work to rise, and flexible work-from-home arrangements to remain. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Malaysian Competition Commission, better known as MyCC, is seeking amendments to the Competition Act 2010. But in the first place what is the ambit of this government agency and does it have any teeth? Mervyn Lai, Senior Associate at Tommy Thomas Advocates gives us a 101 on the law. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Unsold homes remain at worrisome levels, a situation rife with implications for listed property developers. Loong Kok Wen, Regional Head of Property, RHB Research, discusses. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com Unsold homes remain at worrisome levels, a situation rife with implications for listed property developers. Loong Kok Wen, Regional Head of Property, RHB Research, discusses. Image credit: PJ Ka...

With a flurry of mergers and acquisitions expected as companies rationalize to gain market share and reduce cost, will this create monopolies that are detrimental to consumers. Iskandar Ismail, CEO of MyCC tells us why a change in the law is needed to address these concerns. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Azam Wan Hashim from IDEAS deliberates on recent and overlapping efforts pursued by the Government to attract higher quality investment and drive innovation-led growth particularly through the tech sector. Image credit: Abdul Razak Latif / Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Capital has rotated out of Big Tech into cyclicals but with the innovation, depth and breadth of the tech ecosystem, the sector's time in the sun is far from over, says Jonathan Curtis, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager from Franklin Templeton. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Malaysian government has revealed that the RM15 billion cost of developing 5G infrastructure will be borne by the private sector, with an open tender expected to be held soon via the government’s special purpose vehicle, Digital Nasional Berhad. So who wins and loses from this arrangement, and what does this mean for consumers? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We get Dr Oh Ei Sun to navigate through the romantic dynamics and complicated love triangle taking place between PAS, UMNO and BERSATU with the latest political twist and turns following the UMNO General Assembly that took place last weekend. Image credit:  Amiirullah Mansor /  Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dissecting BNM's 132-page 2020 Annual Report. Fear not as Julia Goh from UOB helps us distil the essence of this data-rich report, discusses trends, key economic indicators as well as shed light into what's driving the revised economic growth forecast. Image credit: Shutterstsock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Claude Achcar helps us understand how the tech giants are making huge investments in undersea cable expansion across South East Asia through Indonesia and Singapore and what this means for internet penetration across the region. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever since the start of the pandemic, live events and performances have taken a huge hit. This includes the comedy scene. So how have comedy clubs pivoted in order to weather the crisis? We take a look at the business of comedy with Rizal van Geyzel, co-founder of one of the country’s longest-running full-time comedy clubs. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

Is Malaysia losing the Foreign Direct Investment race? Dr Geoffrey Williams, Professor at the Malaysia University of Science and Technology tells us what needs to be done from a policy perspective to win this race and stand out from the regional competitors. Image credit: Manzrussali / Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the increasing prominence of the gig economy, Wong Chen, MP for Subang, shares his perspective on the increasing dominance of Grab as well as discussing how the Government should address the market power impacting consumers and the gig workers. Image Credit: Abdul Razak Latif / Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Steve Cochrane from Moody’s Analytics gives us insights into how the Suez Canal blockage impacted global GDP, which sectors were affected, the need to diversify our supply chain to remove future vulnerabilities, and whether this could impact the price of goods. Image Credit: EPA-EFE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fall of Archegos Capital with the forced liquidation of more than $20 billion of their holdings had led to losses by some of the largest global investment banks. Pankaj C. Kumar, financial market columnist and former Chief Investment Officer shed lights on this breaking story whilst telling us if there any repercussions on the broader market. Image Credit: EPA-EFE See omnystudio.com/listener f...

UMNO may have chosen to forsake its partnership with Bersatu for GE15, potentially a high-risk strategy that may or not pay off while leaving room for lots of unpredictable permutations, says Dr. Hamidin Abdul Hamid, Research Fellow at the Ilham Center. Image credit:EPA-EFE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.