Malaysia will learn if the recovery Movement Control Order (MCO) will end or be extended this week. The recovery MCO is scheduled to end on Aug 31 and the Health Ministry has recommended that the phase should be extended. "The announcement will be made by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. It will likely be this week, since the announcement (on MCO extensions) is usually made a week before.

Pear Anderson has been keeping track of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southeast Asian travel industry. This is the latest update as of August 23, 2020. Singapore announced unilateral border openings to New Zealand and Brunei, whilst Thailand seems to be powering towards opening up Phuket for international tourists on 1 Oct. Domestic tourism is picking up in Cambodia and Indonesia generating plenty of opportunities for locals to get out and explore.

AMCHAM's Penang Dialogue in October will bring together key decision makers and deep-dive into strategies and the way forward in the "Next Normal." We are working on a very special program and we will announce more details as soon as possible. If you have a particular area of interest please let us know, there may be an opportunity to share in the program. Please be on the lookout for updates.

Companies and individuals are embracing digital alternatives at rapid speed. Can technology help companies recover from COVID-19? Join us and Dato’ Sri Norazman Ayob, Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of International Trade & Industry to find out how Malaysia is making the digital leap into Industry 4.0. Click on the 'Read More' tab to register.

EY has released their latest tax alert issue. This issue covers new legal developments in Malaysia including:

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted trade and impacted economies across the world. As countries in Asia-Pacific, including Japan, ease social restrictions, businesses have come to realise that consumers have changed behaviours, sentiment and beliefs. "In response, the more proactive companies are introducing new strategies to connect deeply with their customers,” observes Fitri Abdullah, managing director of Oracle Malaysia.

In a post COVID-19 world, a vital question surfaces: will there be jobs, and where will they be? While Malaysia may be on the road to recovery following the movement control order (MCO), there is undoubtedly still concern about the prospect of work in uncertain socio-economic times. The short answer is that work opportunities are still aplenty.

On March 23, 2020, McKinsey introduced the twin imperatives of safeguarding our lives and our livelihoods and a nine-scenario framework to describe potential economic and COVID-19 outcomes. At the time, we wrote that the best combined outcomes depended on a rapid and effective public-health response that controlled the spread of the novel coronavirus within two to three months. Similarly, in May, we wrote that crushing uncertainty by reducing the virus spread to near zero was likely the big “unlock” for most economies.