Starting today, a person going out to purchase food or daily necessities during the movement control order (MCO) may be accompanied by one family member staying in the same house, according to an updated regulation by the Ministry of Health. The updated ruling was published under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within Infected Local Areas) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 which take effect from April 29 to May 12, and signed off by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.

The American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) has lauded the National Security Council’s decision to allow all approved sectors to increase their operational capacity and operate fully without time constraints. It said the decision would ensure business continuity and sustainability that are crucial in rebuilding the country’s economy, and enabling small and medium enterprises in Malaysia to reignite and revive their businesses and regain lost ground.

The Malaysian electrical and electronic (E&E) industry lauds the government’s decision to allow selected economic sectors that have been operating at half capacity to operate at full capacity beginning today. The move is good news for E&E players, who have order backlogs to fulfil and demands to meet. But for full effectiveness, other businesses within the E&E ecosystem should be allowed to operate alongside the manufacturers.

Over the past four decades, much of manufacturing production world-wide has been organized in what has become known as global value chains (GVCs). Raw materials and intermediate goods are shipped around the globe multiple times and then assembled in yet another location. The final output is re-exported to final consumers located in both developed and developing markets. For many goods, China is at the heart of such GVCs – for example, as a primary producer of high-value products and components, as a large customer of global commodities and industrial products, and as a major consumer marketplace.

For many economies, 5G innovation promises an opportunity to scale the economic ladder in a technological arena that will undergird the connectivity-based and data-driven Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). But for major powers, 5G innovation is an emerging battlefield for technological, economic and military domination. For all its economic promise, this next-generation technology has the potential to be a nightmare in the making for ASEAN — an organisation that lists choosing sides between major powers as one of its most prominent concerns.