Morning Brief

Two years ago, the UN agreed to commemorate March 10th as International Day for Women Judges to raise awareness on the important role of women in the judiciary and legal system. Women make up half of the legal profession in Malaysia, but it wasn’t until recently that we see more women take on prominent roles in senior leadership of the judiciary. Annabel Kok, Partner at RDS Law shares her reflections on gender representation in the Malaysian judiciary.

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This week, the White House endorsed a bipartisan bill, known as the RESTRICT Act, that could give the President powers to ban or force the sale of foreign-owned technology platforms if they pose a national security threat. The RESTRICT Act would ensnare the TikTok app, owned by Chinese company Bytedance, which is viewed by lawmakers as a possible security backdoor for the CCP government to US data. How are investors reacting to the possibility of a ban on TikTok and which stocks could benefit? Mandeep Singh of Bloomberg Intelligence explains.

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This week in Parliament, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the government is willing to relinquish its discretion in appointing the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to Parliament. How will placing the MACC under the parliamentary purview improve its independence? We discuss measures needed to strengthen the anti-graft body's role with Sudhagaran Stanley of the C4 Center.

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The EU is set to introduce the Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) that would require companies to produce a due diligence report with "verifiable" information that commodities such as palm oil, cocoa, soy and timber were not grown on land deforested after 2020. Will the new EUDR become another trade barrier for palm oil when it comes into force and how prepared are Malaysian palm oil players in meeting the standards? Political economist Khor Yu Leng weighs in on what the palm oil industry can do to adapt to new sustainability imperatives.

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The EU is set to introduce the Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) that would require companies to produce a due diligence report with "verifiable" information that commodities such as palm oil, cocoa, soy and timber were not grown on land deforested after 2020. Will the new EUDR become another trade barrier for palm oil when it comes into force and how prepared are Malaysian palm oil players in meeting the standards? Political economist Khor Yu Leng weighs in on what the palm oil industry can do to adapt to new sustainability imperatives.

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China's National People’s Congress on Sunday saw the world’s second largest economy setting its lowest GDP growth target in decades at 5% for 2023. Beijing has also highlighted uncertain global challenges amid high youth unemployment. Lance Noble, Head of China Reality Research at CLSA, talks to us about where China might be heading, two months after it abandoned its zero-Covid policy and reopened its economy.

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During GE15, there was a considerable increase in support for Perikatan Nasional among the Malay vote base. This has sparked debate on how much opposition parties should be empowered, with measures to level the playing field such as the provision of equal constituency development funding put on hold. Dato' Sri Anwar Ibrahim has long campaigned for political reforms, but will populist concerns and a desire to stay in power affect the pace of progress? We discuss this with political scientist Dr. Wong Chin Huat.

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Under the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint, Malaysia has set a target of achieving 700,000 EVs on the road by 2030 and 10,000 charging stations by 2025. However, given that we're starting from a 2023 base of 2000 EVs and 1000 charging stations, what kind of policies are needed to achieve these goals? Mohd Junaizee Mohd Noor of ZEVA gives us his assessment of Budget 2023 incentives and further measures to grow the Malaysian EV industry.

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Under the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint, Malaysia has set a target of achieving 700,000 EVs on the road by 2030 and 10,000 charging stations by 2025. However, given that we're starting from a 2023 base of 2000 EVs and 1000 charging stations, what kind of policies are needed to achieve these goals? Mohd Junaizee Mohd Noor of ZEVA gives us his assessment of Budget 2023 incentives and further measures to grow the Malaysian EV industry.

Image credit: Friko Keiro

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It has been a great start so far for Malaysian women in 2023. The Cabinet has agreed to amend the Federal Constitution to confer automatic Malaysian citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers, the Employment Act was amended to increase the duration of maternity and paternity leave, and Socso will have grants to encourage women to return to work. Louise Tan, Head of Campaigns at the Women’s Aid Organisation also breaks down the hits and misses of Budget 2023.

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