The Breakfast Grille

Among South Asian countries, Pakistan is Malaysia's third largest trading partner, export destination and import source, with the total trade registered last year between the two countries at US$1.8 billion. We discuss the history of our bilateral relations, and the latest developments in the global geopolitical scenes with H.E Syed Ahsan Raza Shah, Pakistan's High Commissioner to Malaysia.

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ICT Zone Asia Berhad is a LEAP market-listed company that rents, leases, and trades ICT solutions to private corporations. They make it affordable for companies to computerise their operations. CEO Tommy Lim shares with us who are their main clients, the outlook for the industry, and efforts to migrate to the ACE market.

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Bersih has been an instrumental platform in galvanising the civil society and the public to rally for electoral reform. We reflect on the past 5 years of Bersih post GE-14 with former Chair, Thomas Fann who resigned in November despite being re-elected to the role. Why did he step down and what does he make of the reform agenda of the Madani government? We discuss this and more with Thomas Fann. 

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International commerce is growing rapidly and many businesses require fast, simple and secure payment services. Singapore based remittance company NIUM solves this issue by providing real time payment transfers in the B2B space. Anwar Mahbob speaks with Anupam Pahuja, its Executive Vice President and General Manager of APAC, Middle East and Africa as the company faces razor-thin margins, tighter regulation and changing consumer preferences.

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The World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, was set up in 2005 to build bridges through business between Muslim and non-Muslim communities throughout the world. However, given the 7 year hiatus since the last conference, does this platform still have standing among international business circles? Ahead of the 14th WIEF in Abu Dhabi, UAE in February 2024, we ask Tan Sri Dr. Syed Hamid Albar, the Chairman of the WIEF Foundation about the history and relevance of the forum in today's geopolitical context.

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We are now quite familiar with Sam Bankman-Fried being convicted last month on federal criminal charges for wire fraud and money laundering. What is mind-boggling is how FTX's multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire could implode overnight and tragically leave thousands of customers in financial distress - maybe a Netflix series in the making. Rachel Humphreys and Caitlin Ostroff, the Wall Street Journal's producer and reporter, reflect on their month at court and answer outstanding questions about what happened at the FTX trial.

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The Crown Prince and Regent of Pahang, Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah has made environmental conservation and climate change the focus of his advocacy. How are these issues being mainstreamed in Pahang? We sit down with the state regent at the Malaysia Pavilion on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai to find out.

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Malaysia is still not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 refugee convention or the 1967 protocol. This means the 183,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the country are effectively considered undocumented migrants with no access to public healthcare and education as well as having no right to work. Dr Melati Nungsari, an Associate Professor of Economics at the Asia School of Business takes stock of the current situation in conjunction with Human Rights Day celebrated on Dec 10th.

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In conjunction with International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9th, it is timely to have a review of the Madani government agenda in combating corruption. We critically survey the current government’s performance in deterring corruption, the extent of Malaysia’s law enforcement on anti-corruption, and areas needing improvement with Dr Muhammad Mohan, President, Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M), an independent organisation committed towards fighting against corruption.

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UEM Edgenta achieved record revenues in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels; but the performance for the first 9 months of 2023 has been less encouraging. How is Edgenta leveraging on the sustainability theme to propel future growth? We discuss the prospects of the company with CEO Syahrunizam Samsuddin.

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