Morning Brief

00:05 - Parti Amanah Negara or Amanah is due to hold its inaugural party polls this year. In the run up to its party polls, the Islamist party is counting on younger members to plot a different political discourse which focuses on a more progressive outlook. It holds the least number of seats (11) in the Dewan Rakyat compared to the other major parties. One leader, Saari Sungip, the Selangor Amana...

The blame game has started for the Amazon fires and this overshadows the climate crisis the world is facing today including how to set growth policies for developing economies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:05 - The Group of Seven meetings are ongoing in Biarritz, France. Trade took center stage with President Trump tweeting confusing tariffs on China while having a meeting with UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson who has very few cards in his hands over a trade deal with the Halloween Brexit deadline fast approaching 05:19 - With the D23 convention over, the list of new movies that Disney will be re...

Malaysia has made assertions that it has nearly eradicated poverty with the nation's official poverty rate falling from 49% in 1970 to 0.4% in 2016. We speak to Philip Alston, United Nations Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, on why he disagrees with the poverty statistics, what the true statistics look like and what Malaysia can do to alleviate it. See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

The media industry is in flux, with financial problems plaguing big names like Bernama and Utusan Malaysia. For more insight into what's causing the problems at these longstanding institutions, we speak to Gayathry S Venkiteswaran, Assistant Professor of Media and Communications at University of Notthingham Malaysia, about political interference in editorial, and journalist protection. See omnystu...

Amid talk about a cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has said he may consider changing portfolios of certain cabinet members, but that the existing line-up would remain. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With China's second quarter GDP slowing to 6.2%, the slowest in 27 years, we speak to Dan Martin, Regional Credit Officer for Asia Pacific, Fitch Ratings to tell us the impact of any further slowdown on Asian banks and the broader economy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is making the rounds of the EU leaders, beginning with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, to discuss Brexit. We speak to  Simon Tormey, Professor of Politics, University of Sydney about Johnson's progress since coming into power, as well as what other options there could be aside from a no-deal Brexit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Cabinet has agreed in principle to allow motorcycle ride-hailing services. The Transport Ministry has been given a month to submit a report on the direction and mechanism for motorcycle ride-hailing services to the cabinet.  Transport Minister Anthony Loke said that the ministry needs to look at the overall aspects to make the service successful, including looking at the models implemente...

The latest on the Brexit front comes from Matt Gertken, Geopolitical Strategist at BCA Research, particularly in terms of whether the UK will suffer a No-Deal exit and if so, what the repercussions will be, whether from a trade or immigration standpoint.   He also discussed the EU’s economic prospects and how important Germany is to the bloc.  See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

With Utusan's future uncertain, we speak to Jahabar Sadiq, Editor at The Malaysian Insight for his views on the future of media players in the country and whether they can survive as more people switch from reading to videos or podcasts. He also chimes in on he future of his own media outlet and what are the challenges they face in the adex race. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

Bank Negara has just announced the further liberalisation of the foreign exchange administration (FEA) policy for better business flexibility and efficiency. For deeper insight, we speak to  Winson Phoon, Head of Fixed Income Research with Maybank Kim Eng  about the implications of these changes, as well as how they will affect our chances to avoid exclusion from the FTSE Russell's World...

EPF has launched an online portal which totally destroys sales fees from 3% to almost nothing when members’ savings are used to buy unit trust funds. This is good news but members would still have to work out what funds to buy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With depressed circulation, 7 years of losses and hefty debt, it doesn't look like Utusan will be saved by either their tycoon shareholder or UMNO. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following the announcement that Lynas Malaysia has been given a 6-month license renewal to operate in the country, some 500 demonstrators turned out in protests in Taman Gelora, Kuantan. We speak to  Tan Bun Teet, Chairman, Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas  about some of the conditions surrounding Lynas's license renewal, and why there have been allegations that these conditions favour Lynas. S...

With WeWork targeting to raise US3-4 billion in their IPO, we speak to Calum Battersby, Equity Market Analyst with the investment bank Berenberg for his views how we should value this unicorn and if it's a landlord masquerading as a technology company. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia’s second quarter GDP posted economic growth of 4.9 percent, beating average analyst expectations of 4.6%.  Bank Negara governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said that all economic sectors have expanded and the strong growth was on the back of higher household spending and private investment.  The central bank still maintains its 2019 GDP projection of 4.3 to 4.8 percent f...

0.05 - The Edge Financial Daily reports that Khazanah Nasional has pumped another RM300 million into the airlines’ holding company, Malaysia Aviation Group to help with the operation of the business.  Under MRP, Malaysia Airlines was to have broken even in 2018, and be profitable and listed in 2019. CEO, Izham Ismail blames the poor performance on crew shortage, competition, volatility...

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng expects Malaysia’s second quarter economic growth to plateau at 4.5 percent, the same as in the first quarter.  However, economists polled by Reuters are slightly more bullish in their expectations.  The median forecast from the poll of 13 economists was for growth of 4.8% in April-June, w ith individual forecasts ranging from 4.3% to 5.0%.  We sp...

Singapore's political landscape has been predictable for the past 54 years but could a new entrant shake things up? We speak to Thum Ping Tjin, Managing Director at New Naratif, about his thoughts on the newly formed Progress Singapore Party and whether it stands a chance in challenging the People's    Action Party. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (LPTA) announced that the Pakatan Harapan Government has officially renewed Lynas' operating licence for six months but subject to three conditions. The decision came after a public statement after the Cabinet gave its nod for the Australian-based company to continue operating its plant in Pahang.  LTPA said the above terms are also based on the recommendatio...

Argentina's primary election upset over the weekend set off a shockwave in financial markets as incumbent president Mauricio Macri lost to populist rival, Alberto Fernández. We speak to Abhijit Surya, Analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, about the Argentinian economy, and whether South America's second largest economy may be on track for another default. See omnystudio.com/listener f...

The media industry is seeing several major consolidations, and the latest is the tie-up between most-watched US broadcast network CBS and Paramount Pictures parent Viacom. To take a deeper dive into the merger and the wider media sector, we speak to Tony Gunnarsson, Principal Analyst at Ovum, about the future of streaming services, and competition in the sector. See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

With tensions continuing to run high over in Hong Kong, how is the island's economy faring? We speak to Eric Dong, an Hong Kong Equity Strategist at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities,  for his thoughts on the sectors that have been most impacted, as well as whether Hong Kong's economy will be able to stage a recovery. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stashaway Malaysia estimates that less than 5% of young investors are placing their money into the local stock market. We ask why and what can be done to increase to investments as data shows that most Malaysians spend all their EPF savings within 10 years of withdrawal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.