Morning Brief

00:37 - Malaysia’s high level tech jobs are going unfilled. We speak to Ong Geok Eng, an IT Manager at Robert Walters Malaysia 08:28 - Should a young person gain work experience before entering politics? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:24 - What do we do with Malaysian Airlines? The airline industry is indeed a difficult one to be in, so for more insight we speak to  Khair Mirza, Associate Director at Modalis Infrastructure Partners. 07:50 - Malaysia has some of the longest transit times in Southeast Asia, when it comes to e-commerce deliveries. Listen in for more on this.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in...

Student debt is a problem facing not just Malaysians, but also other countries in the Asian region. To discuss the cost of higher education as well as other factors that contribute to ballooning student debt, we speak to  Professor of Development Economics at Universiti Malaya, M. Niaz Asadullah.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia's government thinks a RM6.2 buyout of four toll highways is cheaper than a longer-term RM18b compensation bill. But it's a much broader discussion. The Morning Run crew unpacks the issue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With US Shale producers pumping away furiously and global demand sagging, OPEC and other oil producers are wringing their hands in despair. We speak to Rob Barnett, a Senior Analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, for more.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Calls for Prime Minister's Question Time have gone unheeded, with De Facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong saying that the existing mechanism of Minister's Question Time is sufficient. We speak to Wong Chen, MP for Subang, for this and more about the wider political landscape in the country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:38 - The maker of the world’s best selling drug and the biggest Botox seller, respectively AbbVie and Allergan are marrying. This follows the M&A trends in big pharma to deal with shoring up patent pipelines. 04:52 - Meanwhile, Instagram is going into online retailing. This will be liked by Facebook which in hindsight bought Instagram at a bargain price of only US$1b See omnystudio.co...

00:28 - FGV Holdings’ major shareholders voted against three resolutions on FGV directors' remuneration. According to the chairman of FGV, the board is still deliberating on the matter and that the issue will likely not be resolved any time soon. 07:16 - Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said while the government is open to the possibility of selling Malaysian Airlines, it was al...

With a model for toll acquisition announced we speak to Loong Chee Wei, Senior Associate Director at Affin Hwang Capital, to find out if the offer was fair. We also ask if capital markets were happy with the offer and question whether it will lead to more highway acquisitions in the future. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1:05 - With Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt left in Britain's Conservative party leadership race, we speak to Dr Alan Wager, a lecturer at King’s College London, to get an update and get insight into whether Boris is headed for 10 Downing Street. 07:18 - One of the biggest names in gambling, Caesars Entertainment, has agreed to be bought by rival Eldorado Resorts in a deal worth 17.3 billion d...

00:35 - Moody cites close credit linkages between Petronas and the Malaysian government as its reasoning behind why it cut rates by 1 notch. However its upgraded its outlook for the national oil corporation to stable. 4:43 - Meanwhile, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, says Malaysia is on the right track towards institutional reforms, managing government debt and tackling corruption...

We speak to K.Y Ng, Managing Director of BitInsight, to see if cryptocurrencies can go mainstream with Libra's eventual debut in 2020. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the weekend, PAS held its 65th muktamar or annual congress, and its party elections for the term 2019 to 2021 in Pahang, which saw the top posts go uncontested. One of the major outcomes of the congress was the strengthening of the alliance between PAS and UMNO where the muktamar adopted a resolution in support of the political cooperation with UMNO. We speak to Sheridan Mahavera, journalist...

The 34th ASEAN Summit took place over the weekend, heralding a new ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. We speak to Benjamin Bland, Director of the Lowry Institute, to understand how this compares to previous approaches by the bloc, as well as to find out whether the bloc can escape the shadow of US-China relations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Simmering tensions in the Middle East have thrown global oil supplies into question, as well as raised the spectre once again of armed conflict in the region. For more insight into whether we're headed for an all out conflagration, or if all parties will be able to cool themselves off, we speak to Hady Amr, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

00:08 - The Pakatan government is making progress in fulfilling Promise 6 of their manifesto by offering RM4.5 billion cash to takeover 4 major urban highways owned by Gamuda. 05:51 - Meanwhile, liberalisation of the sugar sector with the issuance of more import licences in Sarawak means that things aren't looking too sweet for local sugar refiners. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

Auto sales pick up year on year but on a deeper dive it's the low base and seasonality effect. However we examine if this trend can continue by looking at Proton and Perodua plans in detail. 05:40 - Paramount Corporation is selling its education business for cash and entrenching itself in the property sector to Two Horses Capital, led by former Khazanah executives. This is in line with the group&r...

Following US President Donald Trump's announcement that he will be running for re-election, we speak to Professor Robert Shapiro, Professor of Government at Columbia University, about Trump's prospects and the current Democratic field. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak with Donald Hanna, Chief Economist at CIMB Group about how sustainable the Chinese economy is and whether it is truly on a growth trajectory. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia has reportedly lost some RM5 billion in potential tax revenues from the illicit tobacco trade. We speak to Pete Collings of Oxford Economics and Erik Stoel, managing director of British American Tobacco.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To  find out the potential growth of the insurance sector and the protection gap that China faces, we speak to Zhang Yi, a financial and insurance analyst with Shenwan Hongyuan Securities based in Hong Kong. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak to Firdaos Rosli, Director, Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia to find out if this initiative is actually good and a solution to our economic issues. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Morning Run crew discuss news that US President Donald Trump has formally announced re-election plans. 06:37 -  Apple has asked its suppliers to move up to a third of production out of China and into Southeast Asia, to mitigate possible fallout from the US-China trade war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Four Russians and one Ukrainian have been formally charged with shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014. 03:43 - Malaysia Airports Holding has seen its share price climbing, on a favourable proposal from Mavcom released earlier this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Facebook announced plans to launch a cryptocurrency, Libra, in attempts to broaden its revenue stream. 06:01 - Huawei has suffered about a 40% drop in overseas smartphone shipments, after the US placed it on an export blacklist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.