ALOR GAJAH: Yayasan Pelajaran Mara (YPM) allocated a total of RM2 million from January to August this year, to provide assistance to 20,000 bumiputra students nationwide under the foundation’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Its chairman, Datuk Mohd Razman Yaacob, said that the assistance provided included laptops, bicycles and cash. At the event, YPM channelled assistance totalling RM14,600 to 78 recipients, in the form of RM100 cash, bicycles and laptops. Mohd Razman said it was YPM's seventh CSR programme under the Pendidikan Pesisir Pantai initiative, after Pangkor Island, Tioman Island, Tawau and Semporna, Tuba Island, Aman Island and Kerian. Donors can get a tax deduction of up to 10 per cent under subsection 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 25): Malaysia will participate in the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 (ITU PP22) in Bucharest, Romania starting Monday (Sept 26) until Oct 14. ITU PP22, which will be participated by 181 countries, is very special and significant for the country because Malaysia will bid for a seat in ITU Council under Region E (Asia and Australasia) for 2023-2026 term, he said. Therefore, in addition to organising a reception on Sept 29, Annuar said he and the Malaysian delegation would spend their time there to meet their counterparts to garner support for Malaysia. Annuar said Malaysia's direct involvement in the ITU PP22 conference would have a major impact on local experts who would benefit from ITU's telecommunications and ICT development programmes. Others are Malaysian Ambassador to Romania, Tengku Datuk Sirajuzzaman Tengku Mohamed Ariffin; as well as representatives from telecommunications network providers such as Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Maxis Bhd, DiGi, as well as MEASAT.

Professionals such as lawyers, accountants and company secretaries, as well as various other entities, including trust companies, dealers in precious metals or precious stones, moneylenders, casinos and real estate agents, have been subject to AMLA reporting requirements for several years. RIs are required to adhere to these rules not only to counter money laundering but also terrorism financing and proliferation financing, which is the financing of weapons of mass destruction. How then should businesses implement a risk-based approach in dealing with anti-money laundering compliance? This tool can be similarly used in the context of AMLA compliance. Commonly identified risks as set out in Bank Negara’s policy documents are client risk, geographical risk and transaction risks.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 24): AirAsia has been crowned the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2022 for the 13th consecutive year. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob also congratulated AirAsia on the award, saying that the airline has been a trailblazer in revolutionising low-cost travel in Malaysia and Asean, contributing significant tourism and economic benefits to the nation. “This is indeed a major milestone not just for AirAsia, but for Malaysia as well,” he said. Meanwhile, Skytrax chief executive officer Edward Plaisted said AirAsia redefined low-cost air travel in Asia and despite the recent post-pandemic challenges, continues to be a firm favourite with customers. “Winning the award for the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline and an extraordinary 13th time is a fantastic achievement, and we congratulate all the members of the AirAsia family on this momentous occasion,” he said.

Since Rapid KL is responsible for the vast majority of Kuala Lumpur’s rail and bus services, the news spurred hope that the unprecedented, city-wide free public transport would reduce traffic congestion. Recent reports indicate that traffic congestion in KL has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The move to entice motorists with free public transport is against a backdrop of dismal ridership, which has plummeted since the outbreak of Covid-19. Each of the three indicators — namely workplaces, transit stations, grocery stores and pharmacies — are benchmarked against their respective pre-pandemic levels. However, apart from better provision of public transport, there is also a need to tackle the demand side of congestion.

“The demand for safe haven is expected to increase further, putting emerging market currencies, especially the ringgit, under pressure,” she told Bernama. However, the central bank said that ringgit movements “will continue to be market-determined and the foreign exchange market continues to function and intermediate effectively”. For the week ended, the local currency also traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies. It climbed against the British pound to 5.0957/0985 from 5.2214/2242 and strengthened versus the euro to 4.4686/4710 from 4.5317/5342 last week. The ringgit rose against the Singapore dollar at 3.2130/2152 from 3.2238/2261 but weakened against the Japanese yen to 3.2091/2113 from 3.1647/1666 a week earlier.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 23): Bursa Malaysia opened marginally lower on Friday (Sept 23), tracking Wall Street which slipped for the third consecutive trading day as central banks’ rate hikes continued to weigh on sentiment. At 9.03am, the FBM KLCI had inched down 0.96 of a point to 1,438.20 from Thursday's close at 1,439.16. Meanwhile, investors may watch for Malaysia’s inflation rate to gauge the upcoming overnight policy rate outlook by Bank Negara Malaysia," it said. “We remain positive on the banking sector on the back of the interest rate upcycle environment, while the telecommunications, solar-related, construction and building material-related sectors are expected to see some buying interest ahead of Budget 2023. Among the heavyweights, Public Bank Bhd shed one sen to RM4.38, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd declined four sen to RM8.46 and IHH Healthcare Bhd slid five sen to RM5.95.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 22): Konsortium Transnasional Bhd’s (KTB) unit has secured a building work contract worth RM109.61 million for an apartment project in Hulu Kinta, Perak. In a filing to Bursa Malaysia on Thursday (Sept 22), the company said its wholly owned subsidiary Transnational Builder Sdn Bhd won the piling work, earthworks and building work from Maju Teluk Batik Sdn Bhd. The scope of works comprise piling work, earthworks and building work for apartment blocks B and C, and two carparks of a mixed development at Hulu Kinta, Perak. The contract is expected to contribute positively to the earnings per share, net assets per share and gearing of the KTB group for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2023 and onwards, the group said in the filing. Shares of KTB closed unchanged at 20 sen a share, giving it a market capitalisation of RM91.61 million.

KUALA LUMPUR: Citi Malaysia has won the ‘Best International Bank’ at the 2022 Asiamoney Best Bank Awards. This is the second consecutive win for the franchise, since winning the first Best Bank award in 2021, the bank said in a statement. The award win was also attributed to Citi Malaysia’s industry-beating performance. In 2021, Citi Malaysia posted a net profit of RM608.085mil, a notable increase of 14.9% from the previous year. Citi is the financial adviser and transaction bank of choice for some of Malaysia’s largest corporates, including Petronas and Genting.

SHAH ALAM (Sept 22): After finishing testifying in his defence in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to his 47 criminal breach of trust, money laundering and graft charges last Aug 30, former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will know on Friday (Sept 23) whether he would be called to enter his defence or be acquitted of another 40 graft charges. Should Zahid be ordered to enter his defence, like in his first case, he has three options. Firstly, he can choose to testify on the witness stand, where he could be cross-examined by the prosecution. Zahid is facing 33 counts of allegedly receiving S$13.56 million (RM43.39 million) from UKSB to facilitate the company's one-stop centre and foreign visa system in China. Read also:Court allows prosecution to begin impeachment proceedings against Zahid’s witnessZahid to know on Sept 23 whether defence will be called in second graft case

The forging of partnerships – particularly the internationalisation of higher education – is an important endeavour for the country’s HEIs, as the government and MoHE work to position Malaysia as an international higher education hub. MoHE aims to establish Malaysia as an international higher education hubTHE year 2022 has seen much more progress in higher education, compared to the previous years when the pandemic still dictated our physical movements. The answer is this - the government of Malaysia in general and more specifically, the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), have been working towards establishing Malaysia as an international higher education hub. Benefits of becoming internationalVarious parties stand to gain from the internationalisation of Malaysia’s higher education. Fourth, is the progressive nature of our higher education system, which supports sustainable and inclusive lifelong learning.

Market risk is monitored on a daily basis and all of the investments and instruments will have a marked to market value. We can see how sensitive the financials are against forex movements of the ringgit versus the biggest-use currency in the world. There seems little to worry about the possibility of large forex losses for the central bank currently. Nonetheless, as we had pointed out in our recent paper, “How Low Can the Malaysian Ringgit Go?”, there is a need to tame the volatility of the ringgit, and there are two ways to do that — either through direct intervention or through deepening the ringgit market. The first option, of course, means that forex losses could be visibly large at the central bank.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): The Cabinet has agreed to the recruitment of 10,000 workers from Sri Lanka after taking into account the state of the country which is hit by the current economic crisis, said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan. In a statement here on Wednesday (Sept 21), he said the Sri Lankan government had submitted an official application to supply manpower involving a quota of 10,000 workers. The Cabinet, at its meeting on Sept 14, agreed on the hiring of the foreign workers to help Sri Lanka, which is facing the worst economic crisis, he said and urged the Malaysian industries and employers to support the government’s good intention by employing workers from Sri Lanka to fill job vacancies in sectors that are allowed to hire foreign workers. According to Saravanan, employers who have been given quota approval and have settled the levy payment should seize the opportunity. As of Sept 14, levy payments had been made for 416,634 applications for foreign workers, he said, adding that employers keen to hire foreign workers can contact the ministry’s Migrant Worker Management Division ([email protected]) or the Peninsular Malaysia Labour Department ([email protected]) for more information.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research has maintained its “Sell” rating on Top Glove Corp Bhd at 70.5 sen with a lower target price (TP) of 54 sen (from 83 sen) and said Top Glove’s 4QFY22 core loss after tax and minority interests of RM80.7 million (3QFY22: RM8.6 million, 4QFY21: RM447.4 million) brought full year FY22 core profit after tax and minority interests to RM175.2 million (-98% y-o-y). In a note on Wednesday (Sept 21), the research house said the results came in below both house and consensus estimates, at 63% and 58% respectively. “The negative deviation to our forecast was mainly due to higher-than-expected cost of sales. “We cut our earnings forecast for FY23-24f by 18-52%, as we lower our utilisation rates assumption for FY23f/24f to 55%/75%. “Our TP is lowered to 54 sen (from 83 sen), representing a PE multiple of 17.3x (at mean to its 5-year pre-pandemic average) on its CY23f EPS of 3.1 sen.

SCIB's US$133.42 million debt obligations to the subcontractors are to be taken up by the projects' respective clients, and are to be fulfilled by utilising the US$146.74 million debts the clients owe SCIB and its unit SCIB International (Labuan) Ltd (SCIBL), the group said in a Bursa Malaysia filing. SCIB said it has inked novation agreements with Pavilion Qatar Engineering Co WLL, Revenue International LLC, Interceptor Trading & Contracting WLL and Skyview Trading & Contracting WLL in the two countries to modify their prior settlement agreements to facilitate the debt resolution. "The final claims stated in the settlement agreements are consistent with the provisions that were taken up in the accounts. The contracts included jobs which pertained to the construction of villas, buildings and service centres, and civil works for a fire water project in Qatar and Oman. Shares in SCIB finished unchanged at 14.5 sen on Tuesday (Sept 20), giving the group a market capitalisation of RM87.41 million.