The Governors of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) have appointed Antony Lee, CEO of AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad to be their new chairman. Antony has been an active participant in the Chamber since he successfully stood for election to the Board in 2018.

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Malaysia will be receiving donations of two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Japan and the United States this week. One million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be received from Japan on Thursday (July 1) and one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be arriving from the US on Friday (July 2).

The government will be announcing a new dosing interval for the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday (July 1). This will apply to all recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Currently, the recommended duration between the first and second AstraZeneca jabs is 12 weeks. The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine recipients in Malaysia received their jabs in early May.

A total of 7,824,912 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to the people nationwide as of yesterday. The number included 5,610,911 first-dose vaccine recipients and 2,214,001 individuals who received their second vaccine shot. The five states that recorded the highest number of people who have completed two doses of the vaccine were Selangor, Sarawak, Johor, Perak and Sabah.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2021 has ranked Malaysia’s global competitiveness at the 25th place from out of 64 economies, an improvement from the 27th position in 2020. International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 ranking, Malaysia held the second position among 190 economies in dealing with construction permits.

Malaysia's trade performance in 2021 has indicated a strong productive recovery with trade having grown by 43.2 per cent to RM190.76 billion. Exports have been in excess of RM100 billion for two consecutive months, reaching RM105.62 billion in April this year, surging by 63 per cent as against April 2020.

EY has released its Special Tax Alert No. 5/2021 on the National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH). This issue covers:

A shoutout to our member company, Samtec for making contributions to the local police in the form of food, drinks, and mineral water which they plan on doing so every quarter. It's always great to see our members doing their part in giving back to the community especially during these challenging times.

Hospital Ampang has close to 150 COVID patients now in, and for the past few weeks the hospital has been expanding the wards in terms of manpower, equipment, and proper isolation spaces.

Both patients and clinicians need equipments urgently to be able to do their work.

If anyone is able to assist, please contact Kevin at kevin@amcham.com.my or Elaine at elaine@amcham.com.my

Hospital Kepala Batas has set up the new Hospital Medan to cope with the rising numbers of ICU patients since May 2021. They are currently in urgent need of medical equipment. AMCHAM is seeking support from any of our member companies.

If anyone is able to assist, please contact Kevin at kevin@amcham.com.my or Elaine at elaine@amcham.com.my

Positive momentum continues to build in many respondents’ home countries and in the world economy, according to our latest McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions. Yet by geography, the results reveal starkly different sentiments between developed economies (where more countries are experiencing or anticipating a recovery) and emerging economies (where several regions face ongoing public-health challenges).