PETALING JAYA: Covid-19 vaccine booster doses with Sinovac's CoronaVac will now be offered for walk-ins at off-site vaccination centres (PPV) under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) from Monday (Feb 14). ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd said that those eligible for their booster doses and intending to receive this vaccine in particular may refer to the list of offsite PPVs at protecthealth.com.my. This comes following the announcement by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on Feb 7 that those who had received two doses of the primary Sinovac vaccine were now allowed to receive the Sinovac vaccine as their booster dose. In a tweet in response to ProtectHealth's announcement, Khairy said that booster shots using Pfizer/BioNTech's Comirnaty and AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria Covid-19 vaccines were strongly recommended as it offered extra protection. “We are still strongly recommending either Pfizer or Astrazeneca booster shots but something is better than nothing,” he said.

The average young voters are expected to be a crucial factor. These young voters won’t be reading print, that’s for sure. That means the political parties will need plenty of help from campaigners who understand the effectiveness of social media influencers. The things that matter most to the young voters are jobs, cost of living, opportunities and hope for the future. Let the Johor voters set the tone and pave the way for a general election, by this year, hopefully.

JELI (Feb 12): The government is monitoring 92 'sick' (problematic) projects nationwide, which are those that are delayed beyond two months or 20% of their completion dates. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said these projects were being monitored by the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU), Prime Minister’s Department (JPM). “The Ministry of Education compared to other ministries has the highest number of such projects, at 22. “Meanwhile, as for states, Sabah has the highest number of 'sick’ projects, at 16,” he told reporters after attending the launching ceremony of the Bukit Bunga Bypass Project in Bukit Bunga, here on Saturday (Feb 12). “This is important to ensure the targets in the implementation of national development projects can be achieved,” he said.

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 12): Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) said its wholly-owned subsidiary, CMS Cement Industries Sdn Bhd, will raise its price of cement by an average of 10% subject to product types and location. The price revision effective Thursday (Feb 17) is due to significant and sustained rising cost of raw and packaging materials and freight charges, CMS said in a statement. Noting that cement production cost has increased by an average of 9% over the past year, CMS expects the upward trend to continue in view of the current macro-environment. “As a further comparison, the prices of other building materials such as steel have also surged across the board since January 2021. “The Building Materials Cost Index (BCI) has increased by 2.3% in Peninsular Malaysia, while the BCI saw increases of 2.1% and 1.5% in Sabah and Sarawak respectively during this period,” it said.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry is targeting investments worth RM350mil during the Sustainable Agriculture Week at Expo 2020 Dubai, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee (pic). Ronald added that the expo would be a great opportunity to improve bilateral ties and trade between Malaysia and UAE through sustainable agriculture development and to elevate efforts to the next level. The Agriculture Ministry was set to attract an estimated 2,000 visitors and delegates during the Sustainable Agriculture Week, with various programmes have been lined up, including exhibitions, product launches, document exchanges, cooking and product demonstrations, networking sessions, business matching, and pocket talks. Others included waste-to-wealth, culinary sustainability, cutting-edge agricultural technologies, and solutions, as well as investment opportunities for agricultural sustainability. The public can obtain more information on the Agriculture Ministry’s Sustainable Agriculture Week at www.mafi-events.com.

"The companies (WRP Asia Pacific and Top Glove) improved their workers condition, got people paid, took care of debt bondage issues, and we modified the WRO. "Now they are absolutely free to import into the US, which, of course, is a very critical market for these companies. "Say that restriction of identity documents was an indicator found, meaning that the workers’ passports or personal documents are held to limit the freedom of movement, the company would have to demonstrate that they remediated through that. "Due to the travel restrictions in the couple of years, to verify that, there's an independent third party audit that comes in and able to verify that remediation step has been made. That's generally how we approached the remediation to the WROs,” he said.Choy said the independent auditors normally appointed from those prominent in the human rights field.-- BERNAMATAGS:

Nor Shamsiah was addressing comments by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that BNM would need to review its financing model to make homeownership much easier for the B40 and M40 in line with the "One Family One Home" target. The central bank governor noted that things had changed since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, including realities around housing demand, and as such financing models may also need to be adjusted. “The bank has always maintained that while this is key, this is not an issue that can be addressed by financing alone. We need to address this too, even as we embark on more innovative financing solutions. Read also:BNM: Malaysia's 4Q21 GDP grew 3.6% y-o-y, full-year expansion at 3.1%Bank Negara targets to name digital banks next monthMalaysia 'nowhere near' very-high inflation risk, says BNM governorBanks' non-performing loan risk manageable despite pandemic — BNM governor

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 11): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) aims to announce the winners of its digital banking licences next month, said governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus. “We are in the ‘advanced stage’ of assessing the applications for digital banks and we target to announce the digital banks with the publication of our annual report at the end of March,” she said during the central bank's fourth quarter of 2021 gross domestic product (4Q21 GDP) briefing on Friday (Feb 11). She noted that the central bank wants the digital banks to offer relevant products and services to the unserved and underserved segments, so that more people and entrepreneurs can better own assets and save for the future or to grow their businesses. “We also expect the entry of these digital banks to accelerate the digitalisation of our incumbent banks. This will be good not just for the industry, but also for all of us here as customers of the incumbent banks,” she explained.

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 11): South Korean smartphone and electronics manufacturer Samsung's new smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, has components made from repurposed fishing nets and other post-consumer materials. Argus said discarded fishing nets contribute to 12 million t/yr of plastic ending up in oceans, according to Samsung. Samsung expects its efforts to remove more than 50t of old fishing nets from the oceans. Last year, US technology firm Microsoft tied up with Saudi petrochemical producer SABIC to create a computer mouse made from recycled ocean plastic. Read also:Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra combines best of Note and S series, with built-in S-Pen to boot

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 11): The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it welcomes further engagement with Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) on the forced labour finding against the company that was issued late last month. The CBP modified its forced labour finding against Top Glove in September last year after thoroughly reviewing evidence that the glove maker had addressed all indicators of forced labour identified at its Malaysian facilities. WROs are issued when information reasonably, but not conclusively, indicates that merchandise produced by forced labour is being, or is likely to be, imported into the US. A finding, however, is determination made that the information has conclusively demonstrated that merchandise was produced by forced labour. Sometimes, it takes restructuring by the company in order to address these indicators of forced labour.

The new line up is made up of the Galaxy Tab S8, S8+ and for the first time an even more souped up Tab S8 Ultra variant. While the S8+ and S8 Ultra have the reader on the display, the S8 has the reader on its side key. For storage space, the S8 comes with 128GB, the S8+ and S8 Ultra have 256GB. The Tab S8 and S8+ come in three colour options: Graphite, Silver and Pink Gold, while the S8 Ultra comes in only Graphite. The tablets are priced at RM3,299 for the S8, RM4,599 for the S8+ and RM5,899 for the S8 Ultra.

Justice Ahmad Fairuz also ordered Serba Dinamik to pay RM30,000 costs to Bursa Malaysia, as the case was brought requiring immediate attention. Counsel Mak Lin Kum appeared for Serba Dinamik while senior counsel Datuk Loh Siew Cheang appeared for Bursa Malaysia. Besides the injunction, Serba Dinamik also sought to nullify the appointment of E&Y Consulting under Bursa Malaysia’s directive to conduct the special independent review (SIR). “It would be a failure on the part of Bursa Malaysia if it did not go through with the suspension,” he said. Bursa Malaysia did not direct Serba Dinamik to appoint but it was on the company's own choosing.

HSBC’s buildout will involve hiring more prime broking staff as well as investing in technology to enable the bank to compete with more established rivals, one of the people said. The unit will cater to US-based clients but with a focus on helping them access emerging-market investments, in particular in Asia. The bank’s ambitions to become a bigger player in the wealth management industry is one of the main rationales for growing in prime broking, the people said. After ArchegosThe move comes after Archegos Capital Management LP’s collapse upended Wall Street’s prime broking landscape. The ongoing restructuring of Europe’s largest lender is likely to dominate as the firm continues its pivot to Asia and wealth management.

GEORGE TOWN: Claiming family financial troubles, a girl has posted a video on social media saying she is willing to lose her virginity for RM6,000. The 17-second video went viral on social media on Wednesday (Feb 9). In it, the girl says she is willing to sell her virginity for RM6,000 and asks people to give her a chance. The video has sparked heated discussions among social media users, some of whom left messages ridiculing the girl and others saying the price was too high. As at 11.15am on Thursday (Feb 10), the video on Facebook has received about 530 Likes and other responses, 426 comments and approximately 76,000 views.

MUMBAI (Feb 9): India’s retail investors opened a record amount of new accounts last year, even as an exodus of foreign investors began to weigh on the multi-year rally in the nation’s stocks. Individuals opened an all-time high of 31 million stock-trading accounts during 2021 — more than Australia’s entire population — according to data released at the end of January by the Securities & Exchange Board of India. Foreigners have continued to sell Indian stocks, with their withdrawals totaling nearly US$10 billion since the end of September. “Indian markets will continue to gain momentum, be it in terms of new listings or new account openings,” said DAM Capital’s Mehta. The IPO manager expects new listings in India, which raised a record US$18 billion in 2021, to keep attracting retail investors as more individuals seek exposure to stocks as an asset class.