Malaysian Business articles from December 2008

Malaysian Business archives from December 2008

Plantation poser.
December 16, 2008... GLOBAL COMMODITY PRICES continue to collapse worldwide. Crude palm oil (CPO) has not been spared either, falling more than two-thirds from its March peak of RM4,486 a tonne. Here, we take a look at the performance of local plantation...

Ramunia regret.
December 16, 2008... IT WAS A PAINFUL LESSON FOR one and all, with minority shareholders once again having to bear the brunt of deals going wrong. Provided everything was above aboard, there would actually be nothing sinister in the case of the recent MISC Bhd's...

Open road ahead.
December 16, 2008... MALAYSIA, WITH ITS FAIRLY WELL organised free and open source software (FOSS) movement, is poised to continue leveraging on open source to create wealth and to position local market for growth even in the midst of the dampening economic...

Investing in a downturn.
December 16, 2008... WHEN WE CARRIED A COVER on 'Where to put your money' last year, our respondents were quite clear about their investments. But with 2009 expected to be a very challenging one, many of those we polled this year were hard-pressed to make...

Investing in volatile times.
December 16, 2008... IN SUCH UNCERTAIN TIMES AS THESE, WHERE DOES the investor put his or her money? With 2009 expected to be a difficult year as Malaysia faces the full- blown impact of the financial crisis on the real economy, those looking to park some fresh...

Caution ahead.
December 16, 2008... THE STOCK MARKET HAS LOST more than RM3 billion of its market capitalisation, with the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) declining almost 43% from its high of 1,524 points early in the year. Is it timely to go in? Analysts note that while...

Time to buy?
December 16, 2008... AS STOCK MARKETS AROUND the world continue to trend downwards, it may be the best time to invest in equities via unit trusts. Fund managers feel this may be a wise investment strategy in the current global financial crisis as equity prices...

Wary eye on CPO.
December 16, 2008... WITH THE CURRENT SLUMP IN palm oil prices, is it a good time to go in? Market watchers are still jittery over crude palm oil (CPO) prospects. Some expect prices to retest the RM1,000 levels due to bearish fundamentals while others expect...

Yellow haven.
December 16, 2008... FOR CENTURIES GOLD HAS been a favourite among investors to protect their wealth and provide a 'safe haven' during troubled or uncertain times. Market cycles come and go, but extensive research by economists has shown that, over the long...

The great recession.
December 16, 2008... READ THE TITLE AGAIN. IT'S NOT THE GREAT Depression. It is still a recession but on a larger scale, perhaps. With the ongoing global financial crisis spreading from the G3 countries - the United States, Eurozone and Japan - to other parts of...

Education for the future.
December 16, 2008... NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY'S decision to locate an overseas campus in Malaysia is indicative of a growing recognition that the country has substantial potential as a regional higher education centre. Newcastle, one of the UK's leading universities,...

HR in review.
December 16, 2008... THE ONE AND ONLY WAY FOR LOCAL COMPANIES, especially small and medium- scale enterprises (SMEs), to survive today's increasing globalisation onslaught is to simply create a sustainable talent mindset. It is one thing for local companies...

A toast to the adman.
December 16, 2008... THE MALAYSIAN ADVERTISING industry has gone through dramatic developments in the past few decades. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Kancil Awards, Malaysia's largest and most prestigious advertising awards show, the Association...

BBDO rules.
December 16, 2008... THE BBDO/PROXIMITY TEAM was truly boisterous at the recent 2008 Kancil Awards, the advertising industry's largest and most prestigious awards show. Indeed, it would have been really hard to keep still and quiet when the agency was constantly...

Malaysia Inc up to the Mark?
December 16, 2008... THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Survey 2008 was a comprehensive examination of our companies' level of compliance with recommended corporate governance best practices because it involved all listed companies. The findings, henceforth, gave a...

Thinking ahead.
December 16, 2008... DECEMBER is a month much anticipated by many. It is when most people go on their long-awaited holiday, while others start planning resolutions for the coming New Year. But December is also the month most employees wait eagerly for their...

A storage evangelist.
December 16, 2008... HUBERT YOSHIDA, AS VICE PRESIDENT AND CTO, is responsible for defining the technical direction for Hitachi Data Systems. He was also instrumental in evangelising Hitachi's unique approach to storage virtualisation which leverages existing...

Landslides & buried promises.
December 16, 2008... THERE'S A MALAY SAYING THAT SEKALI AIR BAH, sekali pantai berubah. Translated literally, it means that each time it floods, the position of the shorelines changes. In other words, a person's life is altered by the experience he or she...

Planning your finances with expert help.
December 16, 2008... DECIDING to work with a financial planner is a huge personal step. So, before you make the decision to go ahead and engage the services of one, you would be wise to ask yourself if it makes sense. Three groups of people should NOT work...

Herbal hair queen.
December 16, 2008... NEETA GOSALIA'S parents desperately wanted a boy. Instead, what they got were six girls, of whom Neeta was the third. Six daughters were considered a calamity for a family in the clannish, conservative Gujerati community in Kuala Pilah,...

Escape to nowhere.
December 16, 2008... IT WASN'T an encouraging sight when, at the mouth of the Thursday weekly Dungun night market, hardly a crowd had gathered. Then again, it could be because it was the monsoon season. People were just a wee bit cautious when it comes to being...

I wanna be rich, rich, rich.
December 16, 2008... I BET there's not a man or woman on earth who wouldn't want to be rich... and I mean filthy rich at that. If you are one among the scores of people out there clamouring to get a piece of the rich pie on a daily basis, then perhaps you...

Expansion drive.
December 16, 2008... IN THE GLOBAL CONSULTANT: How To Make Seven Figures Across Borders, authors Alan Weiss and Omar Khan show experienced global consultants as well as newcomers how to expand not only their brand and expertise but also their markets. Weiss has...

ICB wins Three Banking Awards.
December 16, 2008... ICB Financial Group Holdings AG, listed on the London Stock Exchange - AIM Board has added two more country banks to its winners roll of 'The Banker Bank of the Year Awards 2008' when International Commercial Bank Sh.A. Albania and...

New director of Sales and Marketing.
December 16, 2008... THE Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre has appointed a new Director of Sales and Marketing, Angeline Lue. Lue has more than 10 years experience in business tourism and events destination marketing and substantial knowledge of business tourism...

Enter Kampus Astro.
December 16, 2008... MALAYSIA'S premier Direct to Home satellite multi-channel TV operator, Astro, recently launched Kampus Astro - a strategic initiative to provide access to world-class educational, informative content and experiences to enrich the lives of...

New CEO for OMD Worldwide.
December 16, 2008... MAINARDO de Nardis has been named CEO of OMD Worldwide, one of the leading and most innovative media specialists in the world with more than 140 offices in 80 countries. In his new position, de Nardis, 47, will be based in New York. The...

CA stays positive.
December 16, 2008... AS COMPANIES AROUND THE GLOBE brace themselves to survive through tough economic climate, CA Inc is one of the few that dare boast it will emerge 'stronger than ever before'. 'We have strong financials, a portfolio of strong products, a...

Strategic application delivery.
December 16, 2008... IN AN INCREASINGLY UNPREDICTABLE world where customers face a dizzying array of changes to applications, users and business climates, making application delivery a strategic imperative is no longer an alternative. "Effective delivery of...

The myth of the mid-market CEO.
December 16, 2008... CEOs AT MID-SIZE COMPANIES suffer from the same stereotyping that children face whenever birth order is discussed. Like the middle child, mid-size companies seem to lack the cachet of the hot young start-up and the authority of the older and...

Merger blues.
December 16, 2008... MERGERS DON'T ALWAYS TURN OUT THE WAY you expect them to. Take conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd for instance. In June this year, a research house had forecast a target price of RM13 for its shares. At that time, the shares were trading at...

Innovating the way forward.
December 16, 2008... THE GLOBAL ISLAMIC FINANCIAL and capital market is experiencing rapid expansion at an estimated annual rate of 20%. To date, total Islamic assets within the financial industry have surpassed US$1 trillion - five times larger than the value...

Reit basics.
December 1, 2008... REAL Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is fairly new in Malaysia, with the first REIT being listed in year 2005. Since then, more REITs have been listed on Bursa Malaysia and to date Malaysia has 13 listed REITs. REITs can be an exciting...

High value is the name of the game.
December 1, 2008... WITH the backdrop of global scale economic uncertainties in the days ahead, property buyers in Penang - Malaysia's second best residential hub after the Klang Valley - are now more selective towards their purchase decisions by focusing on higher...

The Dayak dilemma.
December 1, 2008... A KEEN DEBATE ON THE PLIGHT of the Dayaks in Sarawak started recently. It all began when Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) former member Beginda Minda, who is aligned to the Sarawak Minister of Land Development Datuk Seri Dr James Masing, blamed the...

A question of transparency.
December 1, 2008... WHY IS IT THAT WHEN IT COMES TO TRANSPARENCY and accountability, some Malaysians continue to be guided by their own set of standards, which sadly, might not be up to the international mark? Never mind if our transparency standards make us the...

Spoils of oil.
December 1, 2008... THE CONSTRUCTION OF TWO oil refineries and an oil pipeline in northern Peninsular Malaysia to process and transfer Iranian crude oil is well underway. A source close to the US$ 14.2 billion project tells Malaysian Business that work on the...

Were have all the foreign funds gone?
December 1, 2008... TO WHAT EXTENT HAVE foreign funds exited from Bursa Malaysia? And if they have, when are they likely to return? The fact is the local bourse has lost around 30% or more than RM300 billion in value so far this year. Some analysts say at least...

Ireka sticking to Vietnam through thick and thin.
December 1, 2008... THE country's economic fundamentals remain strong despite various uncertainties. Having set its sight on Vietnam for the longer term, construction-based Ireka Corporation Bhd is unperturbed by concerns over the Indo- Chinese country's...

Opportunities during crisis.
December 1, 2008... THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS gripping the globe might cause many organisations to close their doors and leave many more to grapple for cash. Regrettably, such economic situation indicates that the world is going to face a rather bleak 2009. ...

Damage done?
December 1, 2008... IT WAS UNFORTUNATE, TO SAY the least. Out of a careless statement on its dividend policy during a results conference call with analysts, which was rectified a day later, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) saw its share price falling sharply recently. The...

Bursa: Figuring out the foreign factor.
December 1, 2008... FOREIGN FUNDS ARE BOTH a boon and a bane to the local bourse. They can either help fuel a bull run or be responsible for contributing to a bearish phase. Now that the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) has tested the 800 psychological...

Risks on the horizon?
December 1, 2008... ALAM MARITIM RESOURCES BHD HAS ATTRACTED some concerns from analysts over its balance sheet strength as the oil & gas (O&G) company has been expanding its operations via off-balance sheet financing. According to industry observers,...

Intrade joy.
December 1, 2008... JUDGING FROM BOTH THE actual and potential sales of RM2.6 billion generated from the recently concluded Intrade Malaysia 2008, there is hardly any reason for participants to complain about the lack of economic stimulus to justify their...

ESTEBEL Spa.
December 1, 2008... TODAY'S MEN AND WOMEN are facing more stress than ever before and it is in times like these that we need a place to unwind. ESTEBEL Spa is just the right place to provide you with a quiet and comfortable place to de- stress. Surrender yourself...

In harmony.
December 1, 2008... AS A BUDDING OUTSOURCING centre, with well-developed infrastructure, Malaysia is trying to increase its share of the international outsourcing business by wooing Indian companies and offering them what many Malaysian executives call...

Eyeing opportunities amid volatility.
December 1, 2008... RHB Investment Management Sdn Bhd's Managing Director Sharifatul Hanizah Said Ali shared her views on the current and 2009 market outlook as well as what products investors can expect from the industry. Q: Given the gloomy global economic...

All bright for grey.
December 1, 2008... INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS group Grey Group Malaysia (Grey Malaysia) has grown rather rapidly the past two years, with its billings expanding some 20% last year, and the same projected for this year. Headcount-wise, it has grown from a 180-member...

A real helping hand.
December 1, 2008... Current progress and success The commendable achievement of PAJ to date is purely due to the genuine passion of PAJ volunteers and the PAJ operating model. From the funding allocation of RM50 million, approximately 96% was effectively channelled...

Obama-esque.
December 1, 2008... IT'S A DAY THAT'LL GO DOWN in the history of the world, let alone the history of America, as the day - and I told a friend this - when the whole world came black-American. It's a day we should all be proud of. For never in living memory did any...

Ethical sales.
December 1, 2008... MOST organisations have lots of sales people who get to hone their selling prowess daily. Some frequently attend training sessions to sharpen their selling skills. Therefore, are we right to assume that there must be many Sales Ninja warriors...

Misleading information in Cooperatives story.
December 1, 2008... THE TWO ARTICLES BY SHUN Thuraisingham - Cooperatives in Limbo (MB Oct 1) and Remove the Shackles (MB Oct 16) - contain misleading information which could tarnish the image of the Malaysian cooperative movement. The first cooperative was...

A "marriage" built on common values.
December 1, 2008... BUKIT Kiara Group, a boutique developer so synonymous with the trendsetting upmarket development in the expatriate enclave of Mont'Kiara, has found a discerning Middle Eastern partner, in which both parties share a somehow identical core...

A portal for SoHo.
December 1, 2008... A NEW BUSINESS-ENHANCEMENT portal is poised to become an essential hub for the countless of small and home businesses that operate in Malaysia and the region. Developed and managed by Cybernote Sdn Bhd, the newly launched SoHo Portal...

Building your business.
December 1, 2008... MANY SMALL to medium-scale businesses are run without proper development plans. Many ride on the crest of short-term successes and projects and once these run out, owners are left in a quandary on what to do next. There's quite a lot of...

Nurture depth, flow and ... generosity!
December 1, 2008... TODAY IS the day of reckoning. Now is the time for each of us to choose to exercise personal leadership within our circle of influence. As this crisis deepens, and as gloomy economic forecasts spread through the infosphere like an...

From fashion to food.
December 1, 2008... AT 30, Benjamin Yong still has a boyish face that makes some women want to mother him. He has a face that says he loves the good life and is prepared to work hard for it. While still in his mid-twenties, he helped his mother Helen Read, who owns...

SAS pushes for analytic technology.
December 1, 2008... DIFFICULT ECONOMIC TIMES demand improved organisational on performance for companies to remain competitive and even grow. Effective performance management, in turn, can boost competitive advantage by identifying what drives value, improving...

Cooking while on holiday.
December 1, 2008... ON A typical weekday, the open kitchen of Rohani Jelani's modest two- storey home is a cacophony of blitzes and beatings. Her guests are a study in contrasts. Some are pounding away with their mortar and pestle, taking to the tool like an...

ICT business skills.
December 1, 2008... THIS IS the first book said to be profiling Malaysian technopreneurs. And if you take a glimpse of the technopreneurs featured, you'll see that it cuts across a broad section of business lumped under the umbrella term of ICT and biotechnology....

Opportunity in crisis.
December 1, 2008... IT IS at times like these that investors find every little bit of advice on how to make money in the stock market helpful. So this little book on Bull Moves in Bear Markets - How to Keep your Portfolio up when the Market is Down will catch...

AKAS winners.
December 1, 2008... ANJUNG SERI, the country's premier interior decor magazine published by Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd (BPSB), held its annual Anugerah Kreatif Anjung Seri or AKAS at the Saloma Bistro & Theatre Restaurant recently. Besides being the seventh year...

"Buying properties at auctions".
December 1, 2008... BUY low, sell high - perhaps the most often quoted strategy of making money. From the man-in-the-street to the tycoons in gleaming ivory towers, they all quote the same line. And I must concur here. If you can buy low and sell high on a...

ICT in driver's seat.
December 1, 2008... TECHNOLOGY IS KEY IN WEATHERING an economic downturn, proclaims CA, Inc chief executive officer John Swainson. The current economic uncertainty, he says, has intensified the pressure to do more with less. At no time in recent history has...

Telekom partners HGC.
December 1, 2008... TELEKOM MALAYSIA AND HONG KONG-based Hutchison Global Communications Limited (HGC) had, last month, signed a Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) agreement to interconnect the companies' Ethernet and IP-VPN networks. With the NNI agreement...

Securing corporate assets with web content filtering.
December 1, 2008... THE WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) has become a critical and integral part of modern business communications as well as a national pastime for billions of users. With all of the good attributes of increased communications and productivity, the web has...

A useful cue from Apec.
December 1, 2008... THE MOST ENCOURAGING NEWS TO COME OUT of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Lima, Peru, was the assurance that the current global financial crisis could be quelled in 18 months. In a communique issued on Nov 23, the...

The allure of Glenmarie Cove's riverfront homes.
December 1, 2008... GLENMARIE Cove's riverfront bungalow lots are not only much sought after but have also shown to fetch appreciation values of as high as 90% in the secondary market. The latter is especially true of its riverfront bungalow lots launched in the...