Malaysia News
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MALAYSIA, 2016/03/20
Malaysian public universities have dropped in the Times Higher Education University Rankings over the last few years. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) made 87th position in 2013, but as at 2015, no Malaysian university made the top 100 Asian rankings.
Malaysian public universities have as well shown mixed results in other rankings like the QS rankings, where three Malaysian universities had slight rises in their rankings, while Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), International Islamic Universiti Malaysia (IIUM), and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), all slipped in rankings from previous years. No Malaysian university made the top 100, According to the QS ranking profiles, Malaysian universities have lost significant ground in academic reputation and tend to be weak in research, where no Malaysian university reached the top 400.
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MALAYSIA, 2016/02/18
Despite a faster pace of increase in household spending and exports, Malaysia's economic increase moderated in the fourth quarter on slower investment increase.
Gross domestic product climbed 4.5 % year-over-year in the fourth quarter, slower than the 4.7 % expansion in the previous quarter, figures from the Department of Statistics showed Thursday.
Nonetheless, the increase rate exceeded the 4.1 % increase expected by economists.
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MALAYSIA, 2016/01/17
Exports in USD terms fell 15.5% in annual terms in November, following the 18.4% contraction tallied in October. The contraction was additional severe than analysts had expected and marks the lowest figure in nine months. The result marks 14 consecutive months of contraction, as world request for key Malaysian exports dwindles, and the MYR loses ground against the USD. Meanwhile, imports declined 16.5% in November, which was a less severe contraction than the 20.8% fall recorded in the previous month.
The trade balance narrowed from a USD 3.0 billion surplus in October to a USD 2.3 billion surplus in November. The 12-month moving sum of the trade balance fell from USD 25.6 billion to USD 24.6 billion in November. The 12-month figure has been falling steadily since the middle of last year and indicates that declining oil and gas exports have not been completely offset by manufacturing exports.
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MALAYSIA, 2016/01/06
t was only eight minutes into a Malaysia Airlines flight that took off from a New Zealand airport at the same time as the pilot realised something was wrong. It was heading in the wrong direction.
Flight MH132 took off from Auckland airport to Kuala Lumpur on Christmas Day and was going south towards Melbourne, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The pilot was curious as to why the plane, which left at 2.23am on Friday, was not taking a additional direct route to the Malaysian capital and contacted air traffic controllers in Auckland to ask why.
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AFGHANISTAN, 2016/01/02
World economic increase will be disappointing next year and the outlook for the medium-term has as well deteriorated, the chief of the International Monetary Fund said in a guest article for German newspaper Handelsblatt published on Wednesday.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the prospect of rising interest rates in the United States and an economic slowdown in China were contributing to uncertainty and a higher risk of economic vulnerability worldwide.
Added to that, increase in world trade has slowed considerably and a decline in raw material prices is posing problems for economies based on these, while the financial sector in a lot of nations still has weaknesses and financial risks are rising in emerging markets, she said.
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MALAYSIA, 2015/12/31
The Armanda Cabaca company, a subsidiary of Malaysian group Bumi Armada, has secured a credit line of up to US$1.12 billion with a banking syndicate to partially fund a project in Angola, the group said in a statement.
The banking syndicate is led by the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation of Singapore and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation of Japan, and its members include the Korean Development Bank, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered.
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MALAYSIA, 2015/12/28
a national drive to reduce the oversupply of palm oil in Malaysia, the world’s second-major producer, is expected to bring better market stability, supported by government incentives and trade controls.
Climbing stockpile
According to data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), palm oil stocks rose by 2.63m tonnes in September, up 5.46% over the previous month, a thee-year high. Crude palm oil holdings increased by 6.68% month-on-month to 1.56m tonnes, with processed oil stocks up by a additional modest 3.74% to just over 1m tonnes, the board said in a statement in mid-October.
Stockpiles rose despite export increase in September, with overseas shipments reaching 1.68m tonnes, up from 1.61m in August, and biodiesel exports nearly doubling to 31,400 tonnes.
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MALAYSIA, 2015/12/27
The new national budget signals an acceleration of Malaysia’s digital drive, with both ICT research and improvment(R&D) and broadband provision awarded significant funding increases.
While higher investment in the digital economy spells good news for the sector, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular, some stakeholders would like to see additional done to boost industry sales.
Bigger, better broadband
Presented to Parliament on October 23, the 2016 budget sets out a series of spending programmes aimed at supporting ICT services and bolstering R&D.
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MALAYSIA, 2015/12/27
Real estate developers are quietly optimistic that new projects and a steady flow of investments into Iskandar Malaysia, the multi-purpose development zone in the southern national of Johor, will boost investor interest in property in the region, particularly in the overstocked residential segment.
Creating demand
“The authorities need to bring in industry and services in order to grow the people, but all of this takes time,” Ivan Teo, general manager of property developer Rawhide, told OBG. This underscores the need for additional mixed-use properties, which provide a wider variety of services and cater to multiple segments of the community, he added.
There is some early movement in this direction, according to Freddie Lee, executive-director of developer Seri Alam Properties, thanks to increased activity in the industrial segment.
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CHINA, 2015/11/18
Premier Li Keqiang will be in Malaysia from Nov. 20-23, he will attend attend the East Asia Leaders' Conference in Kuala Lumpur, an significant platform to map out cooperation between China and Southeast Asian nations. "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, and its relations with China are at a key juncture. With a proven history of smooth cooperation, both sides should map out a new plan for the coming five years," said Jiang Ruiping, deputy director of China Foreign Affairs University.
The China-ASEAN dialogue partnership will celebrate its 25th year in 2016. The regional organization was founded in 1967 by its 10 member states -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
An ASEAN community is expected to take shape by the end of this year, it will be the initial sub-regional community in Asia.
"China-ASEAN relations are facing new opportunities [...] at this new starting point," Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told a press briefing Tuesday.
