Morning Brief

Recently on social media, renowned healthcare expert Prof. Dr. Adeeba Kamaruzzaman lamented the fact that Malaysia was losing its best and brightest medical graduates to Singapore every year. This reignited a long, ongoing debate on how to tackle the pervasive brain drain in key economic sectors. Dr Niaz Asadullah, Southeast Asia Lead at the Global Labor Organisation, Professor of Economics, at Monash University Malaysia tells us if we can reverse this structural issue.

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Extra ingredients are usually a welcome addition in a dish but not when it comes to rodents and insects. We speak to Jeremy Lim, Vice-President at Persatuan Pemilik Restoran dan Bistro as to what are the minimum health and safety standards for the F&B sector and is compliance and enforcement the real issue?

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The Shanghai Composite Index is down 15% year-to-date but has bounced off its October lows following the China Party Congress meeting that month. Since then, there were a slew of changes with regards to Covid-19 restrictions which were fast and abrupt. More recently China said it will remove quarantine requirements for inbound travellers from January 8. Has the Chinese economy passed its most challenging period and what sectors and stocks should investors be keeping their eyes on in 2023?

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How can the Federal Territories be better managed? We discuss the decision to park the Federal Territories portfolio under the Prime Minister’s Department with Koh Cha-Ly, CEO of Urbanmetry and whether DBKL can shift from being an effective execution entity to a more strategic policy setting.

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How can the Federal Territories be better managed? We discuss the decision to park the Federal Territories portfolio under the Prime Minister’s Department with Koh Cha-Ly, CEO of Urbanmetry and whether DBKL can shift from being an effective execution entity to a more strategic policy setting.

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The technology heavy Nasdaq index is down 34% year-to-date, trading at close to year lows. Even Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management has lost almost $50 billion in assets from its stable of exchange traded funds since its 2021 peak. With the market expecting interest rates to peak in the US in 1Q23 with a Fed Funds rate of just above 5%, does this mean that the worst is behind us and funds could start to flow into the sector in 2023? For insights, we speak to Dan Ives, Managing Director of Wedbush Securities.

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2022 began on a high note for China with the successful hosting of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, despite the strict zero-Covid policy in place. In contrast, as the year comes to a close, China is going through a rocky period following the loosening of pandemic restrictions this month; as a result Covid-19 infections are skyrocketing and impacting economic productivity. How will President Xi Jinping navigate these challenges and more in the year to come? Dr. Pradeep Taneja of the University of Melbourne weighs in.

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Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Anwar Ibrahim is considering scrapping the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC), the overseer of the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) that was launched in 2019. Would the government’s anti-corruption efforts be hindered by the abolishment of this agency or can existing agencies fill the vacuum? Cynthia Gabriel, Executive Director of the C4 weighs in.

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Dato’ Sri Anwar Ibrahim’s government announced further progress towards abolishing the mandatory death penalty. Minister of Law and Institutional Reform Datuk Seri Azalina Othman said that the government would table a series of bills related to amending the law in the coming February parliamentary sitting. What is the significance of abolishing the mandatory death penalty and what kind of implications will this have for the legal system? For insights we speak to Goh Cia Yee, a criminal lawyer.

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2022 has been the year of the King US dollar, with the greenback surging to a fresh two decade high in September. Recently, currency markets reacted with surprise to the Bank Of Japan taking a slightly hawkish tone and tightening policy, causing the yen to soar to a four month high against the dollar. How will currencies in APAC perform in 2023 and what are the risks involved? For answers, we speak to Lloyd Chan, Senior Economist, Oxford Economics.

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