Beginning Thursday (Sept 9), the creative industry will be reopened to fully vaccinated Malaysians in states with Phase One status under the National Recovery Plan (NRP). The activities allowed were indoor busking and hotel lounge performances as well as the reopening of cinemas with a 50% capacity limit.

Walk-ins for COVID-19 vaccination in the Klang Valley will be stopped from Sept 15. Klang Valley residents who have not received their COVID-19 vaccination can get their jabs at selected health clinics from Sept 16. The number of people who have yet to be vaccinated in the Klang Valley is very small, and you can see this from the small number of attendees at PPVs (vaccination centres) recently.

A total of 20,814,413 individuals or 88.9 per cent of the adult population in Malaysia have received at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of yesterday, 7 September. 16,299,881 individuals, or 69.6 per cent, have completed their COVID-19 vaccination.

Malaysia is currently on track in ratifying the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), pending a detailed and clear mandate from the Cabinet, said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). The current administration had made it clear that the government will continue with trade and business-friendly policies and is open to mutually beneficial free trade agreements (FTAs).

This morning AMCHAM held a Spotlight session featuring Nutanix where Raymond Lau, Senior Technologist at Nutanix, gave an informative presentation on understanding Cloud decisions to maximize efficiency and productivity. He went into detail on the different Cloud models available, the business and technical considerations for Cloud decisions, and what Nutanix offers.

FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and one of the world’s largest express transportation companies, announced the launch of FedEx® International Connect Plus (FICP), a new FedEx Express International, day-definite, e-commerce shipping service that combines competitive speed with attractive prices, in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region.

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), in collaboration with EasyStore today announced the launch of the Malaysia Select Campaign (via a Malaysia-Taiwan shopping platform) which aims to assists Malaysian businesses to expand to Taiwan. The campaign is scheduled to run from October 1 to October 10 and is supported by Commerce Development Research Institute of Taiwan, Exabytes, EasyParcel and Janio.

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Citibank Bhd (Citi Malaysia) have teamed up to offer a financial platform and seamless provision of end-to-end banking services to new and existing foreign investors in Malaysia. In a joint statement today, MIDA and Citi Malaysia said they had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the partnership.

Companies around the world pivoted to e-commerce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly overnight, online ordering and delivery was available from restaurants and grocery stores, coffee shops, and traditional retailers. It was a triumph of business ingenuity as companies sought to keep their doors open in the face of an unforeseen challenge.