Following concerns raised by the United States over the role Malaysia-based service providers play in shipments of sanctioned Iranian oil, Malaysia announced on Wednesday ( May 8 ) that it would need to assess its response to unilaterally applied sanctions. A senior US Treasury national stated this week that theContinue Reading
Indranee Rajah, the minister in the prime minister’s office, refuted a Financial Times (FT ) report that claimed government meetings with top international banks were “unusual.”
The Apr 20 content, titled” Singapore gives top- level briefings to comfort international banks on stability”, said the government had given global banks an “unusual series of leading- level briefings on geopolitics”.
In a time when China and the West are at an increased level of tension, the post claimed, this was to comfort the banks.
Ms. Indranee objected to the way that these meetings were organized by FT in a composed political response to Member of Parliament Louis Chua ( WP- Sengkang ) who had questioned Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about the goals and key messages of these meetings.
On behalf of the Prime Minister, Ms. Indranee stated,” It is astonishing that such a badly sourced story, vainly looking for a point, could have been published in a big paper like FT, particularly after we constantly clarified matters with the reporter, including telling her that meetings were not unusual,”
Mercedes Ruehl, FT’s journalist for Southeast Asia and Singapore, wrote the article. She has lived in Singapore since 2020, according to her LinkedIn page.  ,
The FT did not report what we told its writer, which is that almost all of the presentations mentioned by the officials had already been made public by the officials on their own social media accounts, according to Ms Indranee.
Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean led several of these meetings, according to a FT post citing a cite a reputable source with knowledge of the discussions.
According to FT, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, even spoke at these sessions.
The article lists some of the US and Western financial organizations that participated in the meetings alongside Standard Chartered and Citigroup. Local businesses were likewise involved, said FT.
Ms. Indranee wrote in response that she claimed officials and government leaders have been holding these meetings for “decades.” Events involved in for meetings include not only financial institutions – international and local – but likewise groups such as businesses, non- political organisations, unionists and students.
” In brief, we engage as widely as possible”, said Ms Indranee.
In response to a multi-billion dollar case, which is the largest in Singapore, Mr. Chua also posed a query to the Prime Minister about plans to tighten anti-money laundering laws.
Five of the defendants have already received their sentences, with prison sentences ranging from 13 to 15 months.
An inter-ministerial committee will update its findings in” the coming months,” according to Ms. Indranee.
This committee’s formation was announced in October 2023. It is chaired by Ms Indranee, who is also the Second Minister for Finance.
The committee is made up of political office holders from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and four ministries: Home Affairs, Law, Manpower, and Trade and Industry.
A senior US Treasury official stated on Tuesday ( May 7 ) that the country relies on Malaysian service providers to move its oil, with oil being moved near Singapore and throughout the region. The US Treasury is placing a greater emphasis on financing militant groups operating in Southeast Asia,Continue Reading
NSG BioLabs, Singapore’s company of biotech co- working labs and workplace space has announced partnerships with Enterprise Singapore, the Singapore government agency championing enterprise development, and Merck, a leading science and technology company, to boost the biomedical landscape by providing needed resources for as funding, expertise and networks to advance startup research and development.  ,
In a statement, the company said it has also concluded a US$ 14.5 million ( RM68.7 million ) financing round led by Celadon Partners, an Asian private equity firm, and ClayvstBio, a life science investor and venture builder set up by Temasek to accelerate the commercialisation of breakthrough ideas to health impact.  ,
It added that these achievements reaffirm the company’s power and expertise in providing higher- quality, nicely- managed, and turnkey Biosafety Level 2 accredited laboratory and office spaces. Also, these milestones underscore NSG BioLabs as an ecology precursor, providing value- include services and networks, which are critical in driving technological innovation and business growth.
Since 2019, NSG BioLabs has been assisting innovators in creating effective solutions in the health, medical, agrifood, and professional biotechnology sectors, working in areas like as precision medicine, nucleic acids, AI- enabled drug discovery, and artificial biology. The company has assisted over 40 businesses as residents with what it claims to be the biggest co-working biotech laboratory and office footprint in Singapore.  ,
The company’s current residents include numerous multi-billion-dollar corporations as well as numerous promising startups that have achieved significant success. The startup residents have already established hundreds of jobs and successfully raised nearly US$ 400 million ( RM1.9 billion ) in funding.  ,
NSG BioLabs, the company’s CEO and founder, Daphne Teo ( pic ), expressed her support for innovators and how proud of its contribution to Singapore’s expanding biotech ecosystem. We hope to encourage greater collaboration among other stakeholders to benefit the biotech industry in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region, she said.” Our partnerships with EnterpriseSG and Merck demonstrate the importance of a collaborative spirit.”
” We are thankful for the recognition from our investors, Celadon Partners and ClavystBio, and look forward to further empowering our residents in their innovation efforts through expanded facilities, enhanced value- add offerings, and greater exposure to valuable industry networking and mentorship experiences”, Teo said.
NSG BioLabs has been part of EnterpriseSG’s Startup SG Accelerator programme since 2019. In order to accelerate the development and commercialization of such deep tech solutions, the company announced a new partnership with EnterpriseSG to invest in and nurture more high-potential biotech startups. In particular, the company expanded support for those with promising innovations in fields like precision medicine.
Dr Clarice Chen, director of Healthcare and Biomedical, EnterpriseSG stated that Singapore’s biotech landscape has evolved significantly, with a burgeoning community of global startups and doubled healthtech deals in 2023. By providing patient capital, infrastructure, and expertise, EnterpriseSG will continue to collaborate with industry partners like NSG BioLabs to advance the development of novel deep tech innovations like AI-enabled platforms and targeted therapies. This will strengthen Singapore’s edge in precision medicine and revolutionise healthcare delivery”, she added.
The newly acquired funds from Celadon Partners and ClavystBio will be used to improve its products and services and build additional facilities to meet the growing demands of biotech startups and multinational companies in Singapore and Southeast Asia, according to NSG BioLabs, in order to further its mission of supporting biotech innovators.
We are confident that NSG BioLabs ‘ innovative co-working model will provide compelling solutions to biotech startups and companies in the Southeast Asian region given the sector’s significant growth being driven by healthcare needs. NSG BioLabs ‘ commitment to enabling businesses to quickly track their research and development efforts is commendable, according to Donald Tang, managing partner at Celadon Partners.
Meanwhile, Khoo Shih CEO ClavystBio said, the company is excited to foster the growth of Singapore’s life science ecosystem through its support of NSG BioLabs, and its resident startups. ” This investment reinforces ClavystBio’s mission to accelerate breakthrough science into health impact through venture building, and strategic partnerships”, he said.  ,
NSG BioLabs cultivates mutually beneficial relationships between its residents and other important parties as a significant platform in the area with a proven and expanding scale. The company has partnered with Merck to give its residents special terms for Merck’s reagents and life sciences equipment in order to further enable their residents to develop, grow, and scale up. Additionally, the partnership grants you preferential access to biopharma processing expertise and advice on how to increase production.
In a sign of how when promising future revenue sources of growth can go north in the world of hi- tech manufacturing- quite fast- ams Osram, a Austrian- German global optical solutions specialist, particularly in automotives, with a 52 year presence in Malaysia, has pulled the plug on its just completed micro LED plant in Kulim Hi- tech Park, Kedah with an estimated US$ 1 billion ( RM4.75 billion ) multiyear, multi stage investment. The first stage of that purchase is represented by the existing structure.
Standard LEDs are taken and reduced to the micro level by Micro LED. The display industry was again predicted to be the prospect.
Osram began its Indonesian appearance in 1972 as Siemens. In 2020, ams, an Hungarian electronics firm that designs and manufactures sensors for little form factor, small power, highest sensitivity, and multiple- sensor applications, acquired European based Osram.
Ams Osram CEO, Aldo Kamper, disclosed during his analyst call on April 27th that the company had to reevaluate its entry into the sub LED business with the determination to concentrate on its inner micro LED requirements rather than the wider industry as a result of a key customer’s cancellation in February, which was reported to be Apple. Its production in Germany may fill that need. It is now looking for a buyer to purchase the Kulim sub Lead plant’s lease.
That lease is held by three Malaysian funds, namely asset manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd ( PNB), and pension funds  , Employee Provident Fund ( EPF )  , and Kumpulan Wang Persaraan ( KWAP ) who came into the picture last year when, as part of its financial restructuring, a €400 million ( RM2.03 billion ) sale and leaseback of the micro LED site was executed with a commitment from ams Osram to buy it back from the pension funds after ten years, possibly even earlier if it wanted to.
Due to the withdrawal of what Kamper called the researcher briefing’s” cornerstone” contract, it is unknown whether Ams Osram has yet to begin discussions with any parties.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Ams Osram will continue to fulfill its financial responsibilities to PNB, EPF, and KWAP in the worst case scenario where there is no financial impact on the three Indonesian money.
The new facility, which opened in 2017 for US$ 398 million ( RM1.9 billion ), is located next to an existing Kulim factory that produces conventional LEDs. An Ams Osram executive who spoke on condition of anonymity said,” It is business as usual for that plant.”
The decision will affect a significant number of people globally, with Penang reportedly home to roughly 500 workers. The executive stated that the company is considering moving some of those workers to other areas of its operations in Malaysia.
That is a business which has grown to around 6, 500 employees from 2, 000 in the early 2000s. Its latest investment was an expansion in March 2022 to a 60- acre site in Batu Kawan, Penang
Malaysia is a key manufacturing and R&, D hub for ams Osram. Since its inception about 20 years ago, its R&, D team based out of Penang and Kulim has grown to around 400 researchers and is well-known for its numerous patents.
The executive stated that the market for sensors and LEDs is still expanding and that the company has business lines that are expanding in other industries.
From its Malaysian plants, Ams Osram has been producing LEDs for a variety of uses, including ultraviolet and infrared. In addition to various headlamps, taillights, and car interior lighting, it is the number one global manufacturer.
What has happened is a bump in the road that we will work through, said the executive,” We are unwavering market leaders in automotive optoelectronics.”
Beginning on May 10, regular tickets will be available for purchase for the general public for S$ 179 for a one-day pass and S$$ 338 for a two-day pass.
On May 9th, UOB cardholders you attend a tickets program. Through KKday, all tickets will be available.  ,
In a speech to the media,  , David Yong, CEO of Evergreen Group Holdings, said:” Evergreen Group Holdings has always been one of the progenitors in crossing K- articles between Korea and Southeast Asia. We are extremely proud to be bringing in the largest K-pop events to our shores as the co-organizer of Waterbomb Singapore 2024. This is only the start of a long line of K-pop events and K-content initiatives that Evergreen may become spearheading in the near future.
According to organisers, more artistes may remain revealed at a later date.
Despite the sluggish business interest and possibly lower implementation of 5G based services, Digital Nasional Bhd ( DNB), the operator of Malaysia’s nationwide 5G network and its ultimate network equipment provider, Ericsson, are pushing ahead to create market interest in adopting 5G based services.
Their latest work comes in the form of MoUs signed with Intel, eMooVit Technology, a Malay autonomous car business, and two world Swedish companies, Scania, a transport solutions provider and SKF Malaysia, a bearing and seal manufacturer. Börje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson Group who was making an Eastern trip, was in KL to see the drafting with Malaysia’s Digital Minister Gobind Singh in attendance. The Ministry of Finance has established a firm called DNB, which is under Gobind’s government’s control.
DNB and Ericsson are hoping that the MoUs may help businesses develop advanced, industry-specific 5G options that will enable them to increase operational efficiency, promote product innovation, and think about new business models.
” Malaysia is truly positioned to promote automation. According to Ahmad Zaki Zahid, DNB’s Chief Strategy Officer, these Agreements may safe industry leaders by demonstrating the full potential of automation and 5G, which may lead to the desired result of the MOUs.
Dr Hairi Zamzuri, eMooVit’s CEO, said,” Partnering with Ericsson is essential for turning ideas into reality through firm use, with the ultimate aim of transforming urban transport in the future”.
By integrating its operating systems sensors, camera systems, and video analytics over the 5G community, the company is testing use cases for autonomous transportation.  ,
Gobind emphasized the pivotal role of Malaysia’s 5G ecosystem in propelling enterprises towards digital transformation.  ,
” Malaysia’s world- class 5G network is the cornerstone of this digitalization plan. It is much simpler than ever for industries to adopt use cases powered by 5G technology because of the widespread availability ( 80.2 % coverage of populated areas ) of high-quality 5G in Malaysia.
Gobind noted that Malaysia’s 5G deployment is credited with being one of the fastest globally, reaching 80 % of population coverage in less than two years of operation. As of March 2024, DNB said the network serves over 11.9 million 5G subscribers. Ekholm attributed this to the “excellent execution by DNB” resulting in,” now Malaysia has a world- class digital infrastructure”.
However, despite accolades like having a world-class 5G network, being the fastest to reach 80 %, and being among the most affordable, these accomplishments have not yet influenced Malaysian businesses to adopt 5G as part of their digital transformation or competitive strategies. Gobind expressed hope that more businesses will take advantage of the benefits that these cutting-edge telecommunication technologies can offer their businesses.
Taking questions from the media on developments around the second 5G network for Malaysia, Gobind said the new , board of DNB,  , on , Tuesday, will study a , due diligence report regarding the 5G share sale agreement ( SSA ), before making any recommendations. He reiterated that the government’s position was that certain pre-requisites for the SSA between mobile network operators and DNB must be satisfied before a second 5G network can be established.
” The latest pre- condition met , was the appointment of the directors , last week” , , he said.
Intel, Scania and SKF Malaysia roles
Intel will work with Intel to create 5G use cases that will encourage the adoption of businesses. Intel and Ericsson want to demonstrate how communication service providers can speed up 5G adoption and foster compelling use cases for B2B transactions. Intel will focus on use cases in key sectors like manufacturing, transport, and logistics.
AK Chong, Intel’s VP of Foundry Manufacturing &, Supply Chain and Malaysia MD said,” Intel’s technology is at the heart of this industry transformation, catalyzing AI at the edge and breaking down barriers in the 5G core space”, she said.  ,
To benefit from 5 G’s enhanced mobile broadband capabilities for optimized logistics operations, Scania will concentrate on integrating sensors, fleet management systems, and analytics. ” With 5G technology, Scania Malaysia aims to optimize our assembly and fleet management further to deliver greater efficiency to customers”, said Heba Eltarifi, Managing Director of Scania Southeast Asia.
The collaboration with SKF Malaysia, a market leader in bearing and seal solutions, will look at using 5G to enable wireless digitalization on manufacturing floors. Potential use cases include data shower analysis, video sensor monitoring, and data capture. ” We expect this collaboration to represent a significant milestone in our digital transformation journey”, said Vignesh Sakthinathan, Managing Director of SKF Malaysia.
According to David Hägerbro, Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, Malaysia’s 5G network ranks globally among the top five thanks to its availability, affordability, customer experience, and capability. ” Business in Malaysia is now more competitive and attractive for foreign investors thanks to the digital infrastructure created by 5G.”
In Vietnam in April, a fatal heat melts South and Southeast Asia, causing more than 100 record temperatures to fall, according to official data. In recent months, Asia has been hit by extreme heat, from India to the Philippines, leading to heatstroke incidents, school closures, and determined requests for coolerContinue Reading
There is no guarantee that the shifts did succeed in what could be the next stage of America’s plan to separate from China, but Chinese e-commerce platforms Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop are rapidly changing their organization strategies to avert US market bans.
According to research and brokerage firm AB Bernstein, a New York-based research and consulting firm, the three Chinese companies ‘ combined market share in the US is currently at 3 %, and it may increase to 5 % by the end of the year.
The political legal ploy is taking on various forms.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, an online store operated by the video-sharing system TikTok, is currently facing increased attention from Instagram’s Clips, which are intended to make more money off of film authors ‘ creation.  ,
American lawmakers have also accused Shein and Temu of failing to ensure that their supply chains adhere to Beijing’s Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act ( UFLPA ), which was passed in June to punish Beijing’s ongoing rights abuses of the Muslim minority group in the western Xinjiang region.  ,
Chinese e-commerce companies have also been accused of abusing the de-minimis rule, which exempts shipments worth less than US$ 800 from US customs inspection and taxes, by sending packages to the US directly from Chinese ports.  ,
The Biden administration should investigate Shein and Temu over concerns about data privacy violations, according to US lawmakers.
” To avoid a ban, Temu has shied- away a little bit from the US market. In a webinar with The Information, a San Francisco-based business publication with a focus on technology, Mark Shmulik, AB Berstein senior analyst covering the US online market, said that they have not been as aggressive as we have seen them last year. Temu is now concentrating more on Southeast Asian, Mexican, and European markets.
He added that Shein and Temu also try to establish local warehousing and begin training local sellers. They are attempting to obstruct the US government’s ability to impose the UFLPA or change the de-minimis rule.
Shmulik added that it’s not clear whether a similar localization strategy will benefit the two businesses because it could cause their current price advantage to decline.
” It’s hard for them to say’ We’re increasing prices because we’re diversifying selection and delivering goods quicker,'” he said. ” These are not their value proposition”.
According to Shmulik,” when the US consumers start to see the price gap between purchasing a particular good on Temu or Shein and Amazon to narrow, their engagement and excitement about participating and continuing to increase their wallet shipments there will decrease.”
Last year, Shein was the most downloaded app in the US market’s fashion and beauty app segment, registering more than 35 million downloads. Following them, Poshmark and Nike had about 10 million downloads, and Nike had 15.2 million.  ,
Last year, Temu was the most downloaded iPhone app in the US with 103 million downloads, according to Appfigures. It was followed by TikTok with 52 million and TikTok’s video- editing app CapCut.  ,
Temu’s rise was reportedly brought on by the company’s alleged$ 7 million investment in a 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl in February 2023 to market to US consumers under the slogan” Shop like a billionaire.” It ran a similar Super Bowl ad in February of this year.  ,
Temu and Shein are creating empires in the shadow of the de-minimis loophole in US import regulations, according to a report released in June by the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Nearly half of all de-minimis shipments to the US from China were made up of the two companies, according to the report. Additionally, according to the report, Temu failed to implement a compliance system or conduct any audits to confirm and verify compliance with the UFLPA.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated in a report released on April 14 that some of Shein’s products pose health risks and environmental risks. Shein and a number of other Chinese fast fashion companies are accused of and sued for intellectual property ( IP ) rights violations numerous times.
It’s difficult for the US government to ban Shein and Temu because of recent press reports from US officials and lawmakers highlighting China’s alleged industrial overcapacity and government subsidies, according to analyst Shmulik.  ,
Because many of their products are produced in the exact same facility as those on Amazon, he said,” It’s very difficult to ban Shein and Temu for something that is n’t tied to the supply chain, but rather to pricing tactics and subsidization.” The US government ca n’t be harsh on Chinese businesses alone, saying,” We ca n’t ignore other countries.”
” The best tool is the UFLPA”, he said. A law that is “very company-specific” will be effective if you can demonstrate some of the violations of it. That is how you can promote US laws.
He added that the TikTok ban bill, which is an exception, is extremely difficult to pass in the US these days.  ,
The US House passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in March, which mandates that ByteDance sell TikTok to a US-based business within a year in order for the social media app to be completely banned from American app stores.
He Yadong, a spokesperson for the Chinese Commerce Ministry, stated that the US government should sincerely respect the market economy and the principle of fair competition and provide businesses from all nations with an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment.  ,
Joe Biden, the president of the United States, signed the Act into law on April 24.
According to The Information, ByteDance is looking into potential deals to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US business internally, likely without the TikTok user recommendation algorithm, as it was reported on April 25.  ,
ByteDance, however, denied the report and stated that it intends to file a lawsuit against the new US law on grounds of the First Amendment.  ,
” When you touch on the First Amendment, it’s unclear how things will play out”, Shmulik said. According to what we’ve heard, ByteDance does n’t intend to divest TikTok, especially with the algorithm.
TikTok can continue to grow if it can learn from Instagram Reels ‘ algorithm, despite the passing of the law and a potential change in its ownership.
” If I am following a creator on Instagram, I am almost]certainly ] going to see videos from that creator”, he said. Reels is a better place for creators to monetize their follower ships than TikTok, according to the statement.
He claimed that TikTok will eventually realize this and adjust, and that it will only take a few more months before it can create a flow that is comparable to Reels’. He added that there is room for growth for new players because the US e-commerce market is so highly fragmented.
Shmulik argued that the rise of Chinese e-commerce companies will not hurt the bottom lines of important American companies like Amazon and Walmart but may put pressure on margins for smaller ones like Etsy.
According to Statista.com, Amazon had an e- commerce market share of 37.6 % in the US last year, followed by Walmart ( 6.4 % ), Apple ( 3.6 % ) and eBay ( 3 % ).
Read: US complains China hurts shipbuilding, steel firms
Follow Jeff Pao on X at , @jeffpao3
According to projections, Southeast Asia’s air-conditioning population was increase from 40 million in 2017 to 300 million by 2040 due to higher temperatures and better pay. That would expand native electric power, which is already struggling under existing conditions. Myanmar produces only about half the amount of energy it needsContinue Reading