- Indonesia reaffirmed its strong ties with Malaysia
- DeepSeek is the new leader in AI
- Mitsubishi ketar lutut at the eleventh hour
IN Malaysia
State of Malaysia – Indonesia relationship – haruslah strong dong
During Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s official visit to Malaysia, he and his counterpart, PM Anwar Ibrahim are committed to resolving long-standing border and labour issues in an orderly and efficient manner. Malaysia and Indonesia have a series of outstanding land and maritime border disputes that already span more even since the country gained independence. Below are among the border disputes –
- Five locations along the boundary between Indonesia’s North Kalimantan province and Malaysia’s Sabah state, and four locations between Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province and Malaysia’s Sarawak state;
- Overlapping claims over the sovereignty of the Ligitan and Sipadan islands. However, a decision by the International Court of Justice in 2002 has dictated that both islands belong to Malaysia;
- The dispute over the Ambalat block of the Celebes Sea seabed, believed to be rich in mineral resources.
Labour matters
- Putrajaya decided to shelve the Waktu Bekerja Berlainan (WBB) pilot project, aiming to introduce a staggered working hours system for healthcare workers. Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad stated that the decision to cancel the pilot project was not a ‘flip-flop’ decision but instead, it was made to allow more comprehensive engagement with all relevant parties. Previously, when the WBB pilot project’s rumours started to circulate within the public healthcare workers’ community, the contract doctors’ movement, Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) openly voiced out against the idea, adding that the WBB system imposes exploitative and dangerous 18-hour shifts, including graveyard hours, without on-call allowances, depriving healthcare workers of their just compensation. Healthcare workers are humans too and not numbers in a 45-day work week. According to Code Blue, long working hours are one of the factors that lead to male and female doctors having 41% and 130% higher suicide rates respectively, compared to the general population.
- The Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) and the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) lambasted the new rule that requires all companies to provide internships for college and university students. The new rule, implemented initially in a pilot phase, requires companies to place up to three interns for every expatriate employed. The industry interest groups added that this new rule would increase the cost of business and make Malaysia unattractive to multinational companies and industries that rely on foreign workers. The same thing happened to the first issue above, did the government consult the industry groups before it announced the new rule? I don’t think so.
Bursa aiming for 60 IPOs this year
Bursa Malaysia chairman Abdul Wahid Omar announced that the bourse’s net profit increased by 22.9% to RM310.12 mil for FY2024, backed by robust securities and derivatives markets as well as data business performance. In 2024, Bursa Malaysia also recorded 55 new listings that collectively raised RM7.4 bil, contributing to a total IPO market capitalisation of RM31.4 bil and making Bursa Malaysia the leading stock exchange for initial public offerings (IPOs) in ASEAN.
Moving forward to 2025, Bursa wants to top last year’s record by targeting 60 new listings this year, which will include the relisting of MMC Port Holdings into the exchange. However, despite the increase in the number of new listings, Bursa expects lower earnings due to uncertainties in US trade policies that may impact Malaysia’s growth. Papa Trump is really the wildcard when it comes to the global geopolitics scene. No worries, more news to write on for a writer like me.
Source: https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/742598
Bursa Malaysia also stated that ‘new year, new me’ as the exchange welcomes the managing director of group wholesale banking at RHB Bank Bhd, Fad’l Mohamed as its new CEO starting March 1. Fad’l will be replacing the current CEO, Muhamad Umar Swift who will retire, having served Bursa Malaysia since 2019. Fad’l, 57, has over 30 years of experience in the fields of legal, capital markets and investment banking and was the CEO of Maybank Investment Bank.
Source: https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/742533
Around the S.E.A.
China starts trumping the global AI race
When you thought OpenAI’s ChatGPT would dominate the AI scene in the coming decades, China out-of-nowhere did a peekabo to the US by releasing the cheaper yet powerful artificial intelligence model DeepSeek. DeepSeek made use of the ban on chips that the US imposes on China and did not need the most powerful and expensive AI accelerators that are harder to buy in China because of U.S. export controls. The lesser capital-intensive DeepSeek’s release also ridiculed President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that a USD500 bil joint venture infrastructure is needed to power OpenAI’s artificial general intelligence initiatives. For your information, it cost DeepSeek USD5.6 mil to develop its latest model. Apart from that, the US stock market is also not taking the DeepSeek release news well as semiconductor and AI darling stock, Nvidia suffered a 17% hit to its share price, knocking USD589 bil of its market cap.
Mitsubishi may pull the brakes from the Nissan-Honda merger
Mitsubishi Motors in which Nissan has a minority stake in the company, is juggling the decision to bail out from the planned merger between Nissan and Honda Motor. Based on the Japan-based Yomiuri newspaper, it was reported that Mitsubishi hesitates to be a part of this merger as its relatively smaller size would make it difficult to affect the management decisions of the MergedCo. Mitsubishi Motors, in which Nissan is the top shareholder with a 24% stake, was expected to decide by this month whether it plans to take part.
For your EYES only
To those visiting Thailand soon, all foreign arrivals by air, land and sea starting 1 May 2025 would need to fill up the digital arrivals and departure card, dubbed as the Tor Mor 6 (T.M.6) form.
All Travellers To Thailand Must Fill In Digital Arrival Cards From 1 May
The digital TM6 form will require personal and travel information, including passport details and a Thai address.https://t.co/WGrag2Kek3
— SAYS (@saysdotcom) January 27, 2025
