Legacy media companies have struggled to compete with a plethora of platforms that offer varied content. What is the solution to this structural decline? Rafiq Razali, Group Managing Director, Media Prima Berhad tells us his answer whilst we discuss their most recent financial results.

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UCSI University is today one of Malaysia's top ranked higher educational institutions of learning, ranked 265 on the latest QS World University Rankings. It now has a campus in Bangladesh, along with four in Malaysia and hopes to share its Trans-national Education initiative with the world. Vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir shares her views and observations from when she once served as the director-general of the Ministry of Higher Education.

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Malaysia has been rolling out a series of renewable energy policies that have benefited the solar industry. One beneficiary is listed Solarvest Holdings. We ask their CEO and co-founder as to their financial performance, the competition and their transformation plans from being an EPCC player to also an asset owner.

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Pearson VUE, a subsidiary of the British education conglomerate Pearson plc, is responsible for administering high-stakes examinations in a range of different sectors. How is the company capitalising on trends that will drive digital testing and licensure exams in Southeast Asia for business growth? We find out from Craig McFarlane, Vice President of Australia and Southeast Asia at Pearson VUE.

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Two years ago, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) was downgraded by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for failing to meet international safety standards - what implications has that had?

Captain Chester Voo Chee Soon joins us on the hot seat to give us an update on CAAM's situation, plans to take the civil aviation regulator forward, and the growing drone industry.

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Karex, the world’s largest condom manufacturer, saw its net profit grow 27 times on-year to RM2.8 million, but that was 38% down on-quarter. What's driving these choppy numbers? Can Karex achieve more consistent profitability? Philip See speaks to CEO Goh Miah Kiat for some insight into this, as well as its foray into glove making.

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Reliable and trustworthy information is crucial for any decision-making, whether that’s governments drafting policies or civil society casting ballots, and in Malaysia, the Department of Statistics is the keeper of data related to national economic performance and social development.

So we speak to Chief Statistician Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin about the integrity of this information, the take-up of the National Census 2020, as well as the department’s role in national development.

Image Credit (background): Shutterstock.com

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Lennard Yong, CEO of Tricor Group, one of the leading corporate services providers in the region, discusses how some of his clients have adapted to respond to Covid-19; Hong Kong's prospects as China opens up its financial markets; and his thoughts on Malaysia's Digital Economy Blueprint. More pertinently, he thinks the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) will be the real game-changer for Malaysia.

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InNature Berhad is the exclusive franchisee of The Body Shop in Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam, and have also recently added social-selling brand Natura to their stable. They went public last year, just before the pandemic - the share price has been rather rocky as a result.

We speak to Managing Director Datin Mina Cheah-Foong to discuss the extent of the pandemic’s impact and break down their first full-year earnings as a public listed company.

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With increasing digitalization and storage in the clouds, is the use of papers and files close to extinction? We speak to Dato' Lim Soon Huat, Executive Chairman of Asia File Corp, a listed Penang-based producer of stationery and files, on how it intends to overcome this structural decline of its core business, which has been accelerated by Covid-19.

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Eqhwan Mokhzanee Muhammad, CEO of AmBank Islamic, shares with us the progress and performance of the bank as well as how the Islamic finance industry is evolving in these changing and challenging times.

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The events of Langkah Sheraton upended the political landscape and threw Malaysia's democracy into a tailspin. One year later, the country remains on political tenterhooks amid a raging pandemic and a state of emergency. We speak to Dr James Chin, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania, and Ibrahim Suffian, Programme Director at the Merdeka Center, about the lasting impact of the move, and what will come next.

Image Credit: EPA-EFE

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Hari V. Krishnan, CEO and MD at PropertyGuru Group, shares with us how the largest regional property technology (Proptech) player in Southeast Asia is navigating the Covid-19 crisis and their long-term strategy to pursue untapped opportunities amidst a challenging and competitive environment.

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With 16 Islamic banks in Malaysia, competition has become intense. Muazzam Mohamed, CEO of Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, which is the largest, tells us how challenging the operating environment is and whether 2021 is the year of recovery.

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Both Vietnam and the Philippines are claimant states in South China, but they have different relationships and approaches towards China. We discuss how Manila and Hanoi are navigating internal political turbulence as well as broader geopolitical dynamics with the respective country experts. 

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The European Union, a political and economic bloc of 27 countries, is undoubtedly a global superpower. As the 3rd largest trading partner in Malaysia, the importance of its relationship to this country cannot be understated. Yet, there still has been no free trade agreement signed despite negotiations having started in 2010. H.E. Michalis Rokas, the newly appointed Ambassador of the European Union to Malaysia, tells us what are the stumbling blocks to this and their position on palm oil, which remains a contentious issue for both countries.

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What is the Malaysian FDI proposition in an increasingly competitive ASEAN?

Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) CEO Dato' Azman Mahmud joins Khoo Hsu Chuang on the Breakfast Grille to discuss this.

Among other things, they get into the state of investment inflows and outflows, where these investments are going in Malaysia, and whether we're actually going higher up the value chain.

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A trust deficit between the public and the civil service has been highlighted as one of the key challenges in fighting corruption in the country. Several agencies are looking to remedy that mistrust, by strengthening institutions and investigating complaints - but who watches the watchdogs? That task falls to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), which oversees 21 other enforcement agencies. We speak to its chief, Tan Sri Sidek Hassan, for insight into their ongoing struggle.

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When it comes to Malaysia-EU trade relations, attention is often focused on countries like Germany and France, but what you may not know is that Poland is a sizeable consumer of Malaysian goods, particularly palm oil and rubber products.

Is there more room to grow this trade relationship, and bring more attention to it? In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Visegrád Group, a political alliance of four countries of Central Europe including Poland, the Polish ambassador to Malaysia joins Roshan Kanesan on the Breakfast Grille to discuss Malaysia-Poland relations.

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As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to plague the world and dampen the economic outlook, how will cookware manufacturer Ni Hsin Resources Bhd maintain its bottom line and pivot to newer horizons? Newly appointed executive director Lai Kian Huat joins us on the hot seat to discuss the company's diversification plan and his outlook for the industry.

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Close to a third of small retail businesses have “collapsed” in the three weeks since the start of MCO 2.0. More are likely to fold even if retailers are allowed to re-open as of today. Datuk Wira Ameer Ali Mydin, Vice President of the Malaysia Retail Association, and Datuk Michael Kang, President of the SME Association of Malaysia, detail the challenges faced by their members and what they need from the government.

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Datuk Jared Lim, Executive Director of Techna-X, unveils his ambitious plans to pivot from the loss-making metallurgical coke business to energy storage and capitalise on rising demand for electric vehicles (EV). The company's end game is to provide EV solutions but what would it mean for its other businesses in mobile app development and F&B (TGI Fridays and Teh Tarik)? Would they be sold? And is Jared expected to succeed the current Managing Director?

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'Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia' is a book by Ben Bland, detailing the remarkable story of Joko Widodo’s meteoric rise from furniture maker to President of Indonesia in just a few short years.

Lyn Mak explores the contradictions of Joko Widodo and speaks to Ben about Jokowi’s positioning as an ‘everyman’, and how that has faded the further up the political ladder he climbed.

Image Credit: EPA

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Tune Protect, a general insurance player, has enjoyed success due to its exclusive partnership with AirAsia - but with hardly any flights, travel insurance sales have dipped sharply. With travel still restricted due to the pandemic, how will it grow and maintain its presence? Rohit Nambiar of Tune Protect joins us on the Breakfast Grille to discuss.

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Geoff King, CEO of the Navis Capital-controlled luxury grocery chain The Food Purveyor, spills the caviar on how premium chains like theirs are coping with the pandemic, shifting consumer patterns and the metrics that money people seek when valuing their business.

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Founded in 1968, Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia advocates for a non-racial, secular, and socially just Malaysia. Once a dominant force, particularly in Penang, the party lost all its parliamentary seats in the 2018 elections and subsequently left Barisan Nasional after more than five decades with the coalition. Datuk Dr. Dominic Lau, the National President tells us about Gerakan’s current influence and why they are part of Perikatan Nasional.

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Penang property player Iconic Worldwide looks to diversify beyond its core property and tourism business into mask and glove production. With a 5.5 acre facility requiring an investment of RM155 million, we speak to James Tan, Executive Director of Iconic Worldwide, on how the company plans to navigate the lucrative but extremely competitive industry.

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Melaka-based property developer Yong Tai plans to distribute Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Shenzhen Kangtai. Datuk Wira Boo Kuang Loon, the CEO, discusses the credibility of the little-known China-made vaccine, the safety checks, how soon the vaccine could be made available nationwide, and its expected price. He also discusses the problems in maintaining Encore Melaka, a landmark that was built to cater to high-end performances. Of the many issues faced is ineffective tourism campaigns by the government to attract higher-end tourists.

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Texas Chicken is one of the largest quick-service restaurant chains in the world specialising in one of the world’s most popular food items, fried chicken. But with a pandemic still raging on, how will it maintain its presence here in Malaysia, and can it adapt to changing consumer behaviours? To find out, we speak to Ong Yang Ming, Vice President of Business for APAC & Middle East at Texas Chicken.

Image Credit: Texas Chicken

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Datuk Seri FD Iskandar, Group Managing Director at Glomac, shares his outlook, plans to revive its largest asset Glo Damansara Mall, and the possibility of switching focus to industrial properties and to diversify like other developers.

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As Dagang NeXchange's (DNeX) stock price rises, The Morning Run speaks to the IT and energy firm's Group Managing Director Dato’ Sri Syed Zainal Abidin to explore the group's growth plans, as well as their outlook for 2021 and beyond.

Image Credit (background): whiteMocca / Shutterstock.com

Image Credit (headshot): Dagang NeXchange Bhd

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Why are jobs that require high academic qualifications prized over technical vocations, despite the latter being no less meaningful or important? Will the Covid-19 pandemic spur broader debate on the value of work, amid broader recognition of essential workers’ contribution to the economy? We discuss these themes with David Goodhart, author of the book “Head, Hand and Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century.”

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The global sum of government debt was around $78 trillion at end-2020 and is expected to reach $84 trillion by end-2021, approaching 100% of global GDP. James McCormack, Global Head of Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings, tells us why we should start worrying and explains the rationale for the recent downgrade of Malaysia as well as what the government needs to address for an upgrade.

Image Credit (Background): Willy Barton / Shutterstock.com

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Sime Darby Oils is the downstream arm of Sime Darby Plantations, the world's largest palm oil plantation company by planted area.

Last year on The Breakfast Grille, we talked about Sime Darby Oils’ ambitious plans to play a bigger part in contributing to the overall Group's bottom line, but a year later, has that been derailed by the pandemic and a ban from the US Customs and Border Protection following allegations of forced labour?

Roshan Kanesan speaks to SDO's Managing Director Haris Arshad to find out.

Related interviews:

> Sime Darby Plantation Claims Accusations Are "Absolutely False"

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As we look ahead to Inauguration Day in the US, many now question what a Biden administration will look like, across the next four years. Will the US now look to resume the role of global leader that Trump vacated? We discuss the present and future of US foreign policy, and how this could impact the Southeast Asian region with Elina Noor, Director of Political-Security Affairs at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and Jayant Menon, Visiting Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Image Credit: Christos S / Shutterstock.com

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Oil price volatility is set to continue in 2021, so how do oil and gas companies navigate the unstable market conditions, given that their fortunes are so correlated to the price of this commodity? Dato' Kamarul Redzuan Muhamed, Founder and Group CEO of oil and gas company Uzma, gives us his views while telling us his plans for growth after having achieved an order book of more than RM1.35bn to date.

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Sarawak is Malaysia's largest state by land area yet it contributed only 9.1% to the country's GDP last year. That is now expected to change with the state having invested some RM20 billion ringgit to develop its infrastructure so far. Timothy Ong, CEO of the newly established InvestSarawak, shares his vision to bring sustainable investments into the state known for decades for its oil & gas industry, as well as for developing homegrown SMEs.

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Following a fiercely contested election and the harrowing protests at Capitol Hill this month, what will be the legacy of the Trump administration? We catch up with US Ambassador Kamala Lakhdir as she ends her tour in Malaysia for her thoughts on the future of American democracy, and Malaysia-US bilateral ties.

Image Credit: US Embassy KL

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Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad sets the record straight on why he resigned as PM during Langkah Sheraton when the Yang di-Pertuan Agong asked him not to and before a conclusive vote was carried out, and discusses why he believes in an all-Malay party rather than be pro-multiracial, Pejuang’s role as kingmaker in GE15, and his old score with Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

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Maybank is the market leader in Islamic banking by assets. Dato' Rafique Merican, CEO of Maybank Islamic, discusses the impact of the emergency on Malaysia, what it takes to grow Islamic deposits, the hurdles to clear to expand the Sukuk market, as well as views about fintech companies.

Image Credit: SL Chen / Shutterstock.com

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Mah Sing Group is diversifying into the rubber gloves business and expects their first six production lines to be operational in the second quarter of 2021. But is Mah Sing too late to the game or will they be able to compete against the current incumbents like Top Glove and Supermax? Beyond that, as the property market recovers, what are Mah Sing's plans for future property development and launches, as well as land banking? We speak to CEO Datuk Ho Hon Sang to find out.

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2020 was a tale of two halves for the automotive industry. The first was tragic, but the second saw a boom in car sales on the back of pent up demand, low interest rates, and the SST exemption. Will this help loss-making MCE Holdings, a major supplier to Proton and Perodua, turn its financials around and achieve its first full year in the black since 2017?

Roshan Kanesan speaks to MCE's Managing Director, Dr Goh Kar Chun, to find out.

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The Malaysian equity market has been a winner in this post-Covid-19 era with record-high volumes due to a jump in retail trading, but how can this momentum be sustained whilst continuing to protect the market from errant participants? Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, CEO of Bursa Malaysia Berhad, tells us the growth path of the Exchange and the resolution of the inherent conflict of interest structure.

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Bursa Malaysia ended 2020 as the best performing stock market within emerging markets in ASEAN, in large part due to the stellar profits of glove makers and healthcare players. But has the easy money been made, and what will outperform this year? We discuss the market outlook with a panel of experts: Teng Chee Wai, MD of Affin Hwang Asset Management, and Anand Pathmakanthan,  Head of Regional Equity Research at Maybank Kim Eng.

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The Malaysian timber industry contributed 1.6% to GDP in 2019, accounting for RM22.5 billion in exports. With so many industries disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and with support growing for sustainability measures worldwide, how will the timber industry survive? We speak to newly minted CEO of the Malaysian Timber Council, Muhtar Suhaili.

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South Africa is in the midst of a second wave of Covid-19 infections, with positive cases surging recently past the 1 million mark. How is it acting to contain the pandemic and mitigate the economic fallout on its already slowing economy? And what are the prospects for deepening Malaysia - South Africa bilateral ties during these trying times? We discuss the state of play with South African Acting High Commissioner Schoeman du Plessis.

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Semiconductor player Mi Technovation is on a high-growth path, and its solutions can already support wafer sizes of 7nm and below, versus the current norm of 14nm. Would it still maintain its head office in Malaysia, or shift to China or Taiwan to be closer to its customers and access more engineering talent? And as companies like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon move into chip designing and as the US-China trade war continues, how might the semiconductor industry respond? Oh Kuang Eng, the group CEO, discusses these issues.

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Scania has been in Malaysia manufacturing heavy commercial vehicles like lorries and buses from its sole assembly plant in Port Klang since the 1970s. Joyce Antar, recently appointed the managing director of Scania Southeast Asia three months ago, shares her vision of where she wants the company to go in terms of growing its sales volumes while ensuring the overall net zero ambition targets remain in sight.

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At the start of a fresh year and with an eye on GE15, we look back on the political tumult that was 2020 and the lessons that can be drawn for a way forward with our panel of experts, Dr Bridget Welsh, Honorary Research Associate at Nottingham University Malaysia, and Jahabar Saddiq, Editor-in-Chief of The Malaysian Insight.

Image Credit: akids.photo.graphy / Shutterstock.com

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The Covid-19 pandemic shocked economies, causing unemployment and poverty rates to soar. The IMF predicted global GDP would shrink by 4.4% this year.

We revisit conversations with experts on the Breakfast Grille on policy responses to resuscitate the economy and support the most vulnerable.

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