Morning Brief

Touch 'n Go wants to expand its product line in the e-financial segment, following its launch of the Touch 'n Go e-wallet app which has seen growth of over 5000% in the past 11 months. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hours after Iran threatened to derail the 2015 nuclear deal, President Trump ordered 1,000 more troops to the Middle East. To better understand what’s at stake, we speak to James Dorsey, Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Singapore stands out in ASEAN as being a casualty of the US-Sino trade war. The rest of ASEAN might just escape economic damage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Iran may breach the allowed limit of its uranium stockpile, unless Europe helps offset the effect of the US sanctions 03:58 - China may restrict rare earth exports, in a move widely seen as a retaliatory measure for the US clampdown on Huawei. We speak to Eily Ong, Global Metals and Mining, Commodity and Equity Research Analyst from Bloomberg Intelligence for more insight. See omnystudio.com/liste...

The MyFintech Week conference is happening from 17 to 21 June and is hosted by Bank Negara Malaysia. In her opening speech, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus viewed fintech as a means to enhance competition, increase productivity and fundamentally change the way institutions provide financial services. She said technology could present significant opportunities to reduce...

The latest in the Malaysia Retail Industry Report shows a higher projected growth in retail sales of 4.9% this year, an upward revision compared to an earlier estimate given in March. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

01:05 - There is a possibility that the auto sector will be facing the biggest headwinds since 2008 with global sales dropping sharply. To understand why this might be the case, we speak to Carlos Casanova, Chief Asia Economist at Coface. 09:15 - India starts a tit-for-tat trade war against the US by imposing duties on 28 products after it was not granted special tax exemptions for steel and alumi...

Two men connected to the 1MDB scandal have been convicted and sentenced to jail in Abu Dhabi. However, their convictions were not related to 1MDB but were part of a broader investigation by the Abu Dhabi Public Funds Prosecution into allegations of corruption. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:08 - Bank Negara Malaysia is looking to formulate a Consumer Credit Act, to provide consumers with protection irrespective of the source of their loans. 04:43 - PTPTN has received a suggestion to discontinue loans for institutions and courses with low employability. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The tech sector rallies but are we headed for tough times with Anti trust and US-China trade worries? For a deeper dive on the tech sector and who the winners will be, we speak to Jonathan Curtis, Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Franklin Equity Group. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the race for the UK Conservative Party leadership underway, we speak to Professor Simon Tormey of the University of Sydney, for his take on Boris Johnson's popularity, and his chances of winning leadership of the UK. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some airline companies have failed to comply with Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code (MAPC)  amendments by not disclosing the final price of airfare before any ticket is purchased. As a result, Mavcom have issued them with show-cause letters. Listen in for more.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hundreds of thousands of residents in the city state have taken to the streets in protest of an Extradition Bill with China that analysts say is a larger objection to its autonomy, suspicious that the world's largest economy wants more control of the autonomous region that many see is an affront to the ages-old "One Country Two Systems" model. For more insights, we speak to Samson Yuen, Assis...

00:12 - The RM44 billion East Coast Rail Link tunneling has started with the Chinese in charge but other civil jobs are available attracting 1321 submissions from local contractors eyeing the work.  02:23 - For the first time since 2014, national cars outsell non-national ones thanks to X70 and Myvi. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

0:44 - Shreyans Bhaskar, a research analyst with the The Economist Intelligence Unit, discusses the possible repercussions of reports that the Indian government may have embellished its GDP figures. 11:02 - Meanwhile, EU regulators have blocked JV attempts by India's Tata Steel and Germany's Thyssenkrup on fears the merged duo might manipulate prices. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

The police declared Kampung Kuala Koh a “red zone” following several deaths among the Orang Asli Batek tribe who reside there. The authorities have attributed the deaths to lung infection and pneumonia. So the “red zone” declaration essentially serves as a ban on the entry into the village, save for those who have obtained permission to do so. See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Grab is hoping to turn into an online bank if Singapore liberalizes the sector.  This new foray would shake up the banking sector which has been dominated by DBS Group, OCBC and United Overseas Bank. Listen in for more.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:05 - It’s looking slightly overcast on the household debts front with a small chance of light showers on bank ratings. We spoke to Elaine Koh, Director of APAC Financial Institutions at Fitch Ratings, to find out more. 06:40 - Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the government is looking to reduce the bureaucracy in doing business in Malaysia. Listen in for more. See omnystudio.co...

00:05 - The 0.2 percent rise in the Yuan is the PBOC ‘s way of saying nope, the currency would not break 7.00 as many traders fear. But it also reflects the degree of policy options that the Chinese government has in dealing with trade tantrums. For more insights, we spoke to Khoon Goh, Head of Asia Research at ANZ Bank Singapore.   04:50 - Meanwhile Citi is launching a co-branded...

00:05 - The Malaysian Trade Unions Congress Secretary-General J Solomon has made some proposals for the government to consider in its review of the country's labour laws. We speak to Ali Salman, CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economics Affairs (IDEAS) for more insight. 05:06 - Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh has challenged Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr. Xavier Jayakumar, over...

Hong Kong's government is set to push through an extradition bill which has stirred controversy among Hong Kong residents. For more insights, we speak to Samson Yuen, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Lingnan University, Hong Kong, about the million-strong protests which cropped up over the weekend, and the wider context of the issue. See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

The Galen Centre has called on the government to expand the coverage of its free national health scheme MySalam to diseases diagnosed two years ago. While they think that the scheme isn’t a bad one, the government has room to improve it especially by providing more policy details. Of note is looking into whether the RM2 billion that Great Eastern Life is putting into the scheme is...

00:51 - The bid for Conservative party leadership is underway and 11 lawmakers are battling it out for the throne including Boris Johnson, the current favourite to win, as well as Michael Gove the Minister of Agriculture. Candidates will go through several rounds of voting which will reduce the numbers of contenders before they announce the new prime minister. 04:41 - Deutsche Bank has discovered...

00:05 - The existing immigration system, Sistem Kawalan Imigresen Nasional (SKIN) is going to be replaced and three local publicly-listed companies are the front runners for the job. 05:51 - Some analysts are now suggesting that the property market may have bottomed out and be on its way to a slow recovery. Listen in for more information.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

United Technologies Corp has agreed to take over Raytheon in an exchange for shares in United. This new entity will become the second largest aerospace and defence company after Boeing with 74 billion US dollars in sales. This is the largest ever deal in the industry and the new entity will be called Raytheon Technologies Corp. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.