Morning Brief

00:05 - Governor of the  People's Bank of China, Yi Gang, reassures markets that the central bank has many tools at its disposal to manage its monetary policy. 05:06 - Hong Kong's Legislature attempts to amend the extradition law has led to hundreds of thousands on the streets opposing the bill. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The debate over Latheefa Koya’s appointment as the head of the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) continues as the appointment is proving especially divisive within PKR, Latheefa’s former party. Recall that when the news first broke, PKR Chief Dato’ Sri Anwar Ibrahim asked the Prime Minister to clarify the decision to Cabinet and the Pakatan Harapan council. Prime Mi...

Reward for hard work during elections and unilateral decision-making may be flawed as reasons for appointing Latheefa Koya as MACC head. Even fulfilling due legal process seems not to hit the spot. Would running her selection through an appointments parliamentary select committee as promised have been better? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Asia Pacific is not on track to achieve any of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. We speak to Asia Pacific Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN's Economic and Social Commission, Kaveh Zahedi, to find out more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Securities commission will allow three recognised market operators to operate digital asset exchanges in Malaysia, in the country's first official move towards regulating the trade of cryptocurrencies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:05 - MAS CEO objects to shutting it down but what are the options for this beleaguered national airline that has undergone many rounds of restructuring in a difficult operating environment. 06:42 - DRB enjoys its first full year profit in 3 years with the X70 coming to the rescue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:05 - Dr Hoo Chiew-Ping, Senior Lecturer, at National University of Malaysia (UKM) explains that significance of the Shangri La Dialogue in the midst of the on-going US- China tensions and what we can expect from Malaysia's first white paper on defence. 08:18 - Blackstone seals the deal on the largest private real estate transaction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysian Ratings Corp estimated that Malaysia and ASEAN will benefit from trade diversions caused by US-China trade tensions. To find out more, we speak to Laurence Todd, Director of Research and Development at the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB) is urging industry players to put safety first following the collapse of an unfinished building in Gombak. CIDB chief executive Dato' Ir. Ahmad 'Asri Abdul Hamid weighs in on this and CIDB's role in curbing these incidents by placing more emphasis on safety. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plastic associations disagree with NGO's which have suggested an imposition of a "plastic waste ban"to stop the problem of illegal plastic smuggling. The Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) and the Malaysia Plastic Recyclers Association (MPRA) make a case for not having a total ban on plastic waste imports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fitch does a hypothetical analysis on China's slowdown in a  full-blown trade war. However, Fitch doesn't assign a high probability to such a scenario. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:05 - Malaysia and ASEAN are seeing more foreign direct investments as a result of trade diversions from the US-China trade war. 01:53 - The country's overall debt and liabilities in 2018 has fallen in proportion to GDP. 04:14 - Banks may see a tougher second half, on the back of slowing growth and thinner margins. 07:16 - The Employees Provident Fund has reported a 25% drop in their net investm...

Several UMNO members are pushing for constitutional amendments that could stop criminally convicted leaders from taking up party posts. This is in light of UMNO’s top leadership currently facing criminal charges. Decisions on the amendments are likely to take place at the party's general assembly in November. To get more insight here, we speak to Amir Fareed, a Political Analyst with KR...

00:05 - To grow, Singapore's UOB Bank looks to Asean. 04:56 - Meanwhile, Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi snaps up Starbucks in Thailand. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr M's proposal for a gold based East Asian trading currency may not be the panacea for currency woes.  To find out more, we speak to Gerald Ambrose, CEO of Aberdeen Standard Investments.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The telco landscape has seen some major changes and Tun Mahathir  has chimed in with his views. 00:05 - The Prime Minister says that Huawei’s technology has “a tremendous advance over American technology”. 02:25 - He's also voiced concern about the potential job losses that could follow the merger of Telenor and Axiata. 5:00 - The chairman of Telekom is refusing to appoint t...

The Public Service Department has proposed barring civil servants from holding political party posts to avoid conflicts of interest and abuses of power. We speak to Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, Chairperson of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) and former civil servant, for his views on the matter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to Shelley Jang, Director of Asia-Pacific Corporates at Fitch Ratings in South Korea, Samsung will seize the opportunity to fill the vacuum created by Huawei's troubles with the U.S. At the same time, Apple could also suffer market share losses from anti-American sentiment in China. Listen in for more.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Indonesia, six people have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate four state officials during clashes in Jakarta last week. Five men and one woman were charged with the possession of weapons. Jakarta saw a wave of civil unrest in the capital when Jokowi was confirmed the winner of last month’s general election. Eight people were killed and more than 900 hurt in two nights o...

Malaysia joins China and a long list of other countries on the US Treasury's list of potential currency manipulators. We speak to Stephen Innes, Head of Trading and Market Strategy at SPI Asset Management, to find out more and to see if there is any potential impact on markets. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:05 - Shares of Tenaga Nasional reached its most oversold level since December prior to the release of the group’s first-quarter earnings. Tenaga Nasional reported a lower first quarter net profit of 1.6 billion ringgit, down by 27%. This was on the back of higher forex translation losses and higher finance costs. 03:44 - Minister Yeo Bee Yin has urged developed countries to review their p...

0:05 - The FTSE Russell will be including China A Shares to its global benchmarks from June 21st. 4:49 - Japan may call early elections to get out ahead of a planned hike in sales tax in October. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

DBKL are scrapping public hearings for any projects approved under the KL Development Plan 2020 and 2040. Moving forward, developers have to present their Social and Traffic Impact Assessment reports to residents after a development has been approved. Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad has clarified that there will still be public hearings if a proposed development runs contrary to th...

Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir says that the government has yet to decide on the imposing of a bumiputera quota for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project. The Malaysian Bumiputera Contractors Association have been pushing for a 20 percent quota of Bumi workers for civil works on the project. To find out more about the issue, we speak to Dato Ir Jamaludin bin Non, Secretary General of the M...

Results from the EU Parliamentary Elections have shown a swing towards Liberals, Greens and Nationalist parties- eroding the existing power balance. For more insights, we speak to Dimitrios Argyroulis, a researcher at the University of Sheffield, about the rise of populism, Germany's Green party, and the problem of Brexit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.