In the last four years, Southeast Asia’s electricity demand has surged by 24%. Yet, despite the falling cost of renewables, nearly 80% of that new demand was met by coal and gas. The problem isn't the technology, it's a "locked-in" market structure that indirectly blocks the green transition

Alexandre Salesse, Partner at BCG, explains how the "Single Buyer" model and "Take or Pay" contracts have created a reliability gold standard at the cost of future flexibility.

He also unpacks the four critical reform levers needed to modernise the grid without triggering blackouts or investor flight.

Learn about:

• The Physics of Power: Why electricity is a unique commodity that requires a perfect "bicycle balance" between production and consumption.

• The "Sunk Cost" of Coal: How long-term contracts force utilities to prioritise fossil fuels they’ve already paid for, leaving no room for cheaper solar.

• Unbundling for Competition: The necessity of separating power purchasers from plant owners to resolve built-in conflicts of interest.

• The ASEAN Power Grid: Why it took 14 years to negotiate one wind farm and how a regional framework could fast-track future cross-border projects.

• Targeted Subsidies: Moving away from hidden "blanket" subsidies toward transparent, time-bound support for those who need it most.

• Avoiding Wishful Thinking: Why Southeast Asia shouldn't aim for immediate, Western-style liberalisation, but rather incremental "flexibility levers."

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What does it really take to turn innovation into consistent delivery? In this episode, the focus shifts from capital and programmes to the people behind the progress. Because while funding can accelerate ideas, it is talent, skills, and experience that determine whether companies can execute, compete, and grow.

We speak to Ts. Hj. Mohammad Hazani Hj. Hassan, Group CEO, MTDC, about why talent development sits at the centre of Malaysia’s innovation journey, how companies build capability through real-world environments and advisory support, and what it takes to raise standards across industries. From hands-on training and technology centres to industry-aligned learning and execution support, this conversation explores how strengthening talent can help turn innovation into long-term, sustainable growth.

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In 2025, Malaysia had 59 IPOs raising US$1.4 billion, the highest volume in the region, but when we look at the money, Singapore raised US$2 billion with just 13 deals. So Malaysia won on volume, but Singapore won on value.

Wong Kar Choon from Deloitte Malaysia joins BFM Enterprise Explores to unpack the structural differences driving this divide. While Bursa Malaysia has become the region's engine for SME growth, with 44 of those 59 listings occurring on the ACE Market, Singapore continues to be the "global capital gateway" for high-value institutional deals in the region

We discuss:

• The Valuation Gap: Why Malaysia’s domestic-driven market supports volume but caps valuations, unlike Singapore’s access to global funds.

• ACE Market Dominance: With 44 out of 59 listings occurring on the ACE Market, we ask if Malaysia is becoming a "volume factory" for small caps rather than a home for regional champions.

• The "Silicon Valley" Paradox: Why the narrative of Malaysia as the "Silicon Valley of the East" hasn't translated into a wave of semiconductor listings, and whether the real value is locked in MNCs and Private Equity.

• "Real Tech" vs. "PowerPoint Tech": The new criteria for 2026, where investors demand profitability and cash flow over growth stories.

• The 2026 Playbook: How Malaysia can move from "Recovery" to "Reinvention" by attracting foreign institutional capital and hosting marquee IPOs in AI and data infrastructure.

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For 11 months of the year, the digital economy follows a predictable rhythm: traffic climbs in the morning, peaks at lunch, and winds down at night. But during Ramadan, that rhythm is turned upside down.

Welcome to the "Sahur Spike", a pre-dawn prime time where online activity surges across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Luthfi Anshari from AppsFlyer breaks down the data behind this shift, including why finance app installs are costing a staggering $16 USD per user in Malaysia and why the biggest mistake brands make is pausing their ads after Hari Raya.

We discuss:

• The 3 AM Economy: Why the "Sahur Spike" isn't just doom-scrolling, but a high-intent shopping window that drives real revenue.

• The "Liquidity Moment": Why finance apps see a massive surge in Week 1 as users prepare their digital wallets for the festive season.

• The iOS vs. Android Split: Why marketers need two different "rhythms", frontloading premium offers for iOS users while playing the long game with Android's steady traffic.

• The Fraud Trap: How bad actors follow the money, causing ad fraud to spike 15x in Indonesia, and why brands often celebrate "growth that isn't real."

• The "Second Spike": Why shopping activity surges again a week after Hari Raya as people return from hometown travel and restock their lives.

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For centuries, "nation" and "state" were inseparable. You needed physical territory to have a nation. But what if that is no longer true?

Nirbhay Handa, CEO of Multipolitan, argues that we are witnessing the "unbundling" of sovereignty. He draws a critical distinction between a Nation State (defined by borders and politics) and a Nation (defined by shared values and community).

Through the "Nation as a Service" model, countries like Estonia and Palau are allowing users to "log in" to their legal and commercial infrastructure without ever setting foot on their soil.

We dive into the Digital State Project to explore how this shift is creating a new class of "Multipolitans", location-independent entrepreneurs who treat jurisdictions like products.

We also distinguish the vital difference between E-Residency (subscribing to corporate laws) and Golden Visas (buying physical entry), and explore why the world is splitting into "Legacy Titans" (New York, London) and "Builder Cities" (Singapore, Dubai), and where Malaysia’s Network School fits in.

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Agentic AI promises systems that do not just generate responses, but execute real business tasks. Yet new data shows that only around 5 per cent of enterprise AI agent projects have made it into production, with most stuck in prolonged pilot phases due to poor data, siloed organisations, and unclear governance.

We examine why the gap between AI ambition and execution is widening, even as Malaysia pours billions into data centres. We explore what it really takes to manage a workforce that is part human, part algorithm, and why leadership, data readiness, and trust now matter more than the technology itself.

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What does it really take to move a company from early promise to real growth? In this episode, we shift the focus from funding alone to the structured journey founders must go through to build, validate, and scale. Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all programmes, the emphasis is on tailored pathways that help companies navigate each stage of development with clarity and purpose.

We speak to Ts. Hj, Mohammad Hazani Hj. Hassan, Group CEO, MTDC about why customised accelerator tracks matter, how companies are diagnosed and validated before entering the market, and what it takes to reduce risk for both founders and investors. From early stage support and sandbox testing to growth funding and international expansion, this conversation explores how the right structure, sequencing, and support can help turn promising ideas into sustainable businesses.

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For decades, the internet ran on a simple economic contract: creators publish content, search engines organise it, and humans click on it. That click was the currency of the open web.

But in 2025, that contract is unraveling. Nan Hao Maguire of Cloudflare reveals that the internet is shifting from a human utility to a "Machine-to-Machine Economy." With AI crawlers like Google Bot consuming data without sending traffic back, we are seeing a 24-25% "referral deficit" that threatens to bankrupt the creator economy.

We also dive into the dark side of this shift: the rise of Agentic AI and autonomous cyber threats. Cloudflare’s data shows a terrifying escalation in brute force, with the Aisuru botnet hitting peak attack rates of 31.4 terabits per second, a scale that legacy infrastructure simply cannot survive.

We discuss:

• The Broken Contract: How AI crawlers are creating a "referral deficit" by scraping answers without providing clicks, forcing creators toward "pay-per-crawl" licensing models.

• The Machine Web: Why 31% of all internet traffic is now bot-originated, and how we are moving from "AI as a tool" to "AI as a teammate" (Agentic AI).

• The Aisuru Escalation: The massive leap in cyber attack volume from 7.9 Tbps to 31.4 Tbps in just months, and why most providers fail past the 20 Tbps mark.

• Malaysia’s Vulnerability: Why "People in Society" (individuals) have become the #1 cyber target in Malaysia, surpassing banks and government agencies.

• Autonomous Defense: The shift toward "AI vs. AI" warfare, where autonomous defense systems are the only way to counter agentic attacks.

• The Quantum Leap: The silent positive trend of Post-Quantum Encryption, which has jumped from 30% to 52% adoption on Cloudflare’s network.

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We often talk about AI disrupting jobs, but Peng T. Ong (Co-Founder of Monk's Hill Ventures) is talking about something far more absolute: a singularity.

In his essay, "The Economic Singularity: Life as Work Transforms," Peng argues we are approaching a tipping point where the marginal cost of labor and knowledge trends to zero. When AI can write code, draft contracts, and generate strategy decks faster and cheaper than humans, the traditional engine of the economy, trading labor for wages, breaks down.

So, what comes next? Will we live in a "Star Trek" utopia of exploration, or a "Wall-E" dystopia of consumption?

We discuss:

• Defining the Singularity: Why the economy faces a "Blue Screen of Death" when infinite productivity meets zero-cost intelligence.

• The 7 Future Worlds: From the "Star Trek" pursuit of discovery to the "Backup World" where communities preserve pre-tech skills for resiliency.

• The Vulnerability Paradox: Why unregulated white-collar jobs (consultants, investors) are on the chopping block before blue-collar trade work.

• UBC vs. UBI: The critical difference between giving people a salary (Income) versus giving them a stake in the means of production (Capital).

• The "Entrepreneurial" Shift: How education must pivot from vocational training to teaching children how to create value in a post-labor world.

• The Open Source Defense: Why the value of AI models themselves will drop to zero, preventing any single corporation from holding a monopoly on intelligence.

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Running a business built on local craft and grit is a cornerstone of Malaysian culture. But as the nation prepares for the massive influx of Visit Malaysia 2026, "passion" alone may no longer be enough to scale. While MSMEs represent 97% of all registered businesses and contribute 38% of the national GDP, many remain tethered to a cash-heavy past that limits their growth.

In this episode of Open For Business, we sit down with Previn Pillay, Country Manager of Visa Malaysia, to discuss the invisible infrastructure required to move a business from a simple roadside transaction to a total digital transformation.

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