General

Allen Law, CEO of Park Hotel Group based in Singapore with properties located across the region, updates us on the progress of constructing Park Hotel in Malacca. He also discusses the type of hotels and opportunities his family's venture capital fund would be keen on in the near-term as more hotels close down.

Siti Aiysyah Tumin, Research Associate at Khazanah Research Institute, discusses the structural reasons behind why young people are not saving enough and running up high credit card debts, whether the minimum wage should be raised, and the government’s mixed messages - encouraging people to save but at the same time loosening the criteria for EPF withdrawals.

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In the US, Congress has just passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to aid those affected by the pandemic. But markets are concerned that massive fiscal spending will trigger inflation, sending 10-year Treasury yields above 1.6%. So to understand the effect the stimulus bill will have on the US economy and bond markets, we speak to Padhraic Garvey, Regional Head of Research for the Americas at ING Financial Markets.

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Richard Bradbury speaks to Paul McManus, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at Maxis, about the Maxis Programmable Network (MPN), which allows customers greater flexibility in customising their bandwidth usage. Highlighted are the benefits that customers can look forward to, as well as examples of where the MPN is especially useful.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has just concluded a 4-day visit to Saudi Arabia, from which we have reports that Saudi will be adding 10,000 places to Malaysia's haj quota. But more than that, does this signal a return to a more cordial Malaysia-Saudi relationship? What might Saudi Arabia have to gain from that? We speak to Anis Huszainey, Researcher at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, to find out.

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The US Dollar is back in vogue with the Bloomberg Dollar Index rising 1.24% since late February, but will this reverse with the expected debt raising to fund the $1.9 trillion stimulus package in the US? Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank weighs in on this, as well as the ringgit depreciation, Singapore's STI, and whether he expects the treasury yield curve to continue to steepen.

We get you out of bed, to your first cup of coffee or to your first destination of your day with thought-provoking discussions on ideas, people and events shaping all our lives.

3:05 : What kind of stories or perspectives would you like to see more of in an era of democratized story-telling?

11:27 : Does art in the form of an non-fungible token (NFT) have the same value?

17:19 : International headlines

23:45 : Local headlines

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The Malaysian government recently signaled the long-awaited restart for live music with the announcement of a new set of guidelines. Though this is exciting news for all music fans who were starved of live music, are the new set of SOPs viable for live music event spaces? Brian Gomez from Merdekarya joins us to share his perspective on the new guidelines and the future of live events moving forward.

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Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are cryptographic tokens consisting of unique identification codes that recently gained traction again when musicians adapted to selling digital content using NFT. Unique content purchases like these create a higher appreciation value for hardcore music collectors, but will NFT continue to be a growing trend? TM Lee, co-founder of cryptocurrency data aggregators CoinGecko shares his insight on the matter, what it means to jump on the bandwagon, and the future of this payment method.

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By The Way is a rapid-fire segment that gives you a snapshot of developing stories in the music world. This week, we revisit performances of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at previous NBA games including the most recent performance by Gladys Knight at the 2021 NBA All-Star Game. The Grammys is set to take the stage on Sunday the 14th of March to crown last year’s best music as well as showcase performances by renowned artists. Lastly, several British live concert industry governing bodies and organizers are in talks of developing a vaccine passport to ensure the safety of the masses when attending live events in the future.