Morning Brief

PwC launches its Building Trust Awards 2019 to recognise companies that are building trust through stakeholder communications. Out of the top 50 public listed companies considered, twenty have been shortlisted. Join the poll to vote on companies that you trust, brought to you by PwC at bit.ly/PwcTrustPoll2019   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Communications and Multimedia will consider reviewing the 9 year old Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) at the “Impact of EU-GDPR in Malaysia and Non-EU Countries”conference. The act was formulated back in 2010 and since, there has been a lot of development in the area of privacy and data protection. We speak to Foong Cheng Leong, who’s part of the...

Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the Heads of the largest Government linked funds all presented at this event. Were there any announcements or significant policy changes that will impact markets? We speak to Wong Shou Ning, ex Fund Manager and new BFM producer who was there on the key takeaways and the mood of the investment community during the event.  See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s legal team has put forward four appeals over three counts of criminal breach of trust and one charge of abusing his position over SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million. One of these appeals is High Court’s decision to allow Attorney-General Tommy Thomas’ application to withdraw the certificate to transfer the case from Sessions...

00:10 - UK House of Commons speaker John Bercow has ruled out Theresa May's option for another Brexit deal vote. 01:38 - Australian tech shares have outperformed both their US and China counterparts. 04:50 - Apple preps for its debut into streaming. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malay Mail Editor-in-Chief Dato Wong Sai Wan speaks out, saying there is a case for the national carrier's survival, saying it plays a valuable economic and national service See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With news still trickling in out of Christchurch, we speak to Carrie Nooten, Journalist with France Media Monde, Radio France, who was sent to cover the mosque shootings. She tells us about the sentiment among New Zealand's Muslim community, and what we can expect from Jacinda Ardern on gun control. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With just over a month to go to the Indonesian elections, President Joko Widodo appears to have pulled ahead of his closest contender, retired general Prabowo Subianto. For more insights into the candidate field, we spoke to Anwita Basu, the Lead Southeast Asia analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for her analysis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed said that the government will review the existing environmental protection legislation in response to the illegal dumping of toxic waste into Sungai Kim Kim, Pasir Gudang. In light of the tragedy, the public has called for severe penalties for the perpetrators. Currently if found guilty, perpetrator can be charged up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine not...

The deadly Christchurch mosque shootings, which has claimed at least 50 lives, has spurred conversations about radicalisation, Facebook's response, and national gun legislation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The China’s National People’s Congress passed a new foreign investment law last week. The law indicates that foreign firms to receive the same treatment as local firms on government procurement and as well as no force technology transfer in exchange for access to China's markets. We speak to Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific Chief Economist with IHS Markit on his thoughts. See omnystudio.com/...

The Morning Run team discuss the possibility of a Bank Negara rate cut on Malaysia's currency and its implications on the local currency and fund flows. They also sink their teeth into a brewing trade war between palm growers (like itself and Indonesia) and the European Union, ostensibly over the sustainability (or otherwise) of palm, where the EU's green agenda is concerned. See omnystudio.com/li...

00:40 - The dumping of toxic waste in Sungai Kim Kim has apparently been happening for years and according to the a water quality and modeling specialist, it seems nothing has been done to for nearly a decade said the ecological disaster of Sungai Kim Kim was a tragedy waiting to happen 05:15 - The SPM results were released yesterday and according to the Director-General of Education, Datuk Amin S...

With China set to wrap its annual policy conference later today, we spoke to Huang Juin Hao, Senior Portfolio Manager with Affin Hwang Asset Management, to get his thoughts on key takeaways from the Congress. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MITI sets a ‘realistic’ target of RM200 billion of approved investments in 2019 vs 2018’s RM201.7 billion. The 2018 investments are expected to create over 129,799 job opportunities. China was the largest investor, followed by Indonesia, Netherlands, Japan and the US. The Securities Commission said the Malaysian capital market remained resilient, despite the challenging and volat...

Malaysia has had its share of nationals who supported I.S. and now want to return as the influence of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State wanes. An estimated 100 Malaysians joined I.S. and now 13, including women and children, have expressed intent to come home. We ask the question is how should countries treat former terrorists to Professor Ahmad El-Muhammady, lecturer at Internat...

Deputy Trade Minister  Ong Kian Ming clarifies his ministry's latest directive on the approved permits system, which brickbats say has caused structural imbalances in Malaysia's automotive industry. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has made the decision to ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, but it could be too little too late. Has US dominance of the skies been shaken? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Minister for Economic Affairs Dato’ Sri Azmin Ali announced that the government  would formulate a new economic policy to address Bumiputera concerns.  We speak to Dr Terence Gomez, Professor of Political Economy at Universiti Malaya for his thoughts, and the intermingling of politics and economic policy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:15 - The government is studying whether to shut down, dispose or refinance Malaysia Airlines as it has missed its target to turn to profit in 2018 despite competitive fare cuts and other measures. Malaysia Airlines accounted for almost half of Khazanah's impairment cost for 2018. 06:12 - Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir also commented on the size of the civil service and is proposing that the opt...

01:20 - A New Malay Economic Policy is on the cards, with the Economic Affairs Ministry set to begin discussions with key stakeholders. 06:00 - South Korean President Moon Jae-In is making an official visit to Malaysia, the second stop on his tour around the ASEAN region. For some background on our bilateral relations with South Korea, we spoke to Dr Hoo Chiew-Ping, Senior Lecturer at Universiti K...

00:56 - The International Monetary Fund foresees stable growth for Malaysia in the medium term, with GDP expected to grow at the same rate as last year. 06:16 - On news the government may be extending housing loan tenure to address a property overhang, we speak to Allan Soo , Deputy Executive Chairman of Savills Malaysia for his insights. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:15 - The shock resignation of Finland's Prime Minister places Finland's upcoming EU Presidency in question, and raises uncertainties over the policy direction of the EU as a whole. 02:34 - India's general elections will take place from April to May. We speak to Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, to help us contextualize the issue See omnystudio.com/liste...

00:20 - The Communications and Multimedia Ministry is mulling on a new law to take action against news portal operators who failed to monitor and allow their readers to leave comments that touch on racial, religious and royal institution sensitivities. 05:20 - An amendment at the second sitting of the Parliament to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia...

In-depth analysis of news and current affairs that matter on the international and local front. Everything you need to know to start and plan your business day. 00:15 - As Umno moves to get in bed with Pas, how will this spell for the shaky relationship it has with partners MCA and MIC? Was the move to call for the Barisan Nasional coalition to be dissolved a muted one? We speak to Professor of Po...