The American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) has urged the Ministry of Human Resources (HR) to reconsider the foreign employment process which requires employers to advertise vacancies on the national employment portal MYFutureJobs, effective Nov 1. AMCHAM said the restrictions would create a domino effect that will exacerbate Malaysia’s recovery and impact on investments as well as the employment ecosystem in the country.

The government's decision to prioritise the employment of locals by requiring employers to advertise job vacancies in MYFutureJobs portal before hiring new expatriates or foreign workers is a positive step to resolve unemployment issues, especially for fresh graduates.

Penang has managed to capture 47 per cent of the nation’s manufacturing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of 2020, demonstrating the critical role the state plays in driving the economy, said Chief Minister, Chow Kon Yeow. In line with the Penang 2030 vision to upgrade the economy, he said, the state will continue to attract more technology-intensive projects that will generate higher quality jobs, increase household incomes and boost the overall well-being of communities.

The government has not cancelled the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, instead it is temporarily frozen, the Dewan Rakyat was told today. Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the temporary suspension was to allow the ministry to make detailed specifications and improvements to the programme, comprising safety, property, wellbeing and economic impact.

The National Security Council (NSC) has released its latest version of the standard operating procedures for the conditional movement control order (CMCO) that has been imposed on the Klang Valley and Sabah until November 9, including whether dining-in is allowed. The NSC yesterday issued two separate sets of CMCO SOPs as of October 31 for the Klang Valley and for Sabah, with some of the SOPs overlapping while others differ or are state-specific.

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 November 1, 2020. Singapore once again makes unilateral moves - this time for China and Australia's Victoria state which are not allowed to enter the country without quarantine beginning 6 Nov. COVID-19 case milestones as Indonesia surpasses 400,000, Myanmar 50,000. More airlines are cutting jobs as close to 5,000 Thai Airways staff apply for voluntary redundancy and Garuda Indonesia terminates 700 employees.

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Next year's budget will likely continue to roll out stimulus measures to address "the now" - the key issues of saving lives and livelihoods in the short term, said Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Sdn Bhd (EY). It will also position Malaysia for "the next" - the recovery in the medium and longer term.

The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre recently organised the first-ever in its history digital ITA-AITES World Tunnel Congress. The 46th edition of the event was attended by over 1,000 participants from 54 countries with up to 16,000 visits to the 262 technical papers and 8,000 visits to the 80 exhibition companies. The co-organisers, the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA), managed to adjust the programme quickly to include several of the originally planned activities.

The ongoing shift towards e-commerce has birthed a fiercely competitive logistics industry, with 109 courier license holders in operation in Malaysia as of October 2020. On the back of the fact that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have suspended issuances of new licenses for two years, BFM speaks to Cheong Yen Li, Associate Director at PwC, to provide a picture of the size of the industry, and what can be expected from moving into this new normal.

AMCHAM are excited to announce its partnership with LeadWomen and UN Women, as one of the supporting organizations for the upcoming WEPs Malaysia Activator Campaigns.

This program will commence from November 2020 until September 2021 and is expected to engage 300 companies to commit to gender equality by becoming signatories of the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs).

COVID-19 is forcing petrochemical executives to rethink the future of the industry. Slowing demand growth, growing surplus, and a shrinking value pool were already present before the pandemic and have only become more pronounced. In addition, the industry faces structural disruption from the tran­sition to renewable energy resources and a regenerative, or circular, economy. This article details the impact of disruptions due to the pandemic—namely the decline in demand and oil prices—on short-term, medium-term, and longer-term industry outlooks.