Morning Brief

With there only being weeks left until Ramadan, peace talks between mediators from several countries have continued in Qatar, with US President Joe Biden praying for a deal as early as next week. We ask Middle East expert Dr. James Dorsey for his take on the recent developments in the Israel-Hamas war.

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Over the next two weekends, Taylor Swift will be performing 6 sold out shows in the lion city with over 300 thousand tickets sold. Dr. Lau Kong Cheen, Associate Professor from the School of Business at Singapore University of Social Sciences tells us the multiplier effect these concerts have on the economy and why concerts are a core component of their tourism strategy.

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Currently there are only 100,000 EV cars on the road. Yet the government has target of 20% ownership by 2030. Is providing a one-off subsidy the solution? Lee Yuen How, Managing Director, EV Connection gives us his views whilst telling us what other measures the government should consider.

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Malaysia's government is working out a legal system that will provide a kill switch to automatically act against fraudulent activities on any online domain or platform. Dr Selvakumar Manickam, an associate professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia helps us understand how effective current efforts are even as online scam cases continue to rise and what else could be done to address the situation.

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On Monday, Cambodia’s ruling party won the Senate elections, paving the way for former prime minister Hun Sen to be the president of the upper chambers. The Senate President serves as the head of state when the King is absent from the country. We get insights from Jakarta-based journalist Erin Cook on Hun Sen’s return to front-line politics and it means for Cambodian politics moving forward.

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The government recently announced that there are no plans to enforce a mandatory build then sell concept for housing developers, but as the nation continues to battle with abandoned housing projects, what is the best method moving forward? We ask Datuk NK Tong, President, Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association on his perspective as well as the outlook for the real estate market.

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The 15th Parliament reconvened for its first meeting of the third session on Monday, with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim delivering his inaugural royal address. What were the key takeaways and how does this set the tone for this sitting's parliamentary proceedings? Political scientist Dr. Syaza Syukri of UIA discusses the expectations for parliament and the Madani government.

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The legal fraternity is convening in Sabah this week for the Borneo Rainforest Law Conference 2024, spotlighting issues related to environmental conservation. As rising climate change risk underscores the importance of conserving the environment, are Malaysia’s environmental laws sufficient to meet these challenges and how can our legal framework be strengthened? We get recommendations from lawyer Kwong Chiew Ee of the Bar Council Environment and Climate Change Committee.

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The Japanese contradiction is leaving many observers scratching their heads: despite its economy falling into a technical recession and weak economic data, the stock market has never been stronger with the Nikkei surpassing 1989 highs. What explains the dissonance between markets and the economy? We ask economist Norihiro Yamaguchi from Oxford Economics for his analysis.

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The 1st of March will see the sales and services tax (SST) rate rising from 6 to 8%. With two days to go, the government has announced an expansion in the scope of SST to include most categories of maintenance and repair jobs. We ask Alan Chung, Senior Executive Director of Indirect Tax and Transfer Pricing Practices, Grant Thornton Malaysia to clarify the implications of this amendment on SST, and if there has been enough transparency.

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