RHB Retail Research says Notion VTec Berhad formed a second consecutive white candle, furthering its rebound from the 21-day SMA line that it recently tested in a consolidation phase.
In a trading note, the research house says a positive bias may emerge above MYR0.75, with resistance points pegged at MYR0.86, followed by MYR0.915.
“A stop-loss can be placed below MYR0.75,” it says.
A new joint UN project is seeking to help governments and businesses keep transport networks and borders operational and facilitate the flow of goods and services, while containing the spread of the coronavirus.
The project launched this month will implement UN solutions, standards, guidelines, metrics, tools and methodologies to help developing countries build transport, trade and logistics resilience in the wake of Covid-19.
The initiative brings together UNCTAD and the five UN regional commissions for Africa (ECA), Europe (ECE), Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and Western Asia (ESCWA), with funding managed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The project puts a premium on global reach and regional presence, international cooperation, as well as exchange of knowledge and good practices from all over the world.
It seeks to equip governments in developing and least developed countries to adapt to new post-Covid-19 conditions by tapping into UN expertise, standards, tools and guidance, while considering their specific and local conditions.
Three clusters
It comprises three clusters designed to match existing and emerging standards and best practices in transport and trade facilitation with new concerns and demands arising from Covid-19 on cross-border freight transport operations and trade transactions.
The first cluster focuses on contactless solutions and good practices. It aims at reducing physical contact among people in cross-border supply chains by facilitating the flow of goods without spreading the virus.
This will be done by implementing UN conventions and standards for seamless harmonized electronic exchange of data in digital transport corridors, border crossings and trade operations, as well as developing smart rail and road connectivity.
The second cluster is geared towards maximising seamless connectivity. It focuses on eliminating obstacles to cross-border trade and transport operations arising from the Covid-19 crisis.
It aims at promoting synergies among border agencies by empowering national trade facilitation committees, improving customs automation and identifying non-tariff barriers.
The third cluster focuses on collaborative solutions on transport, trade and logistics operations by strengthening regional and sectoral cooperation to facilitate joint actions and solutions in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It will give special attention to international transit issues, which are multilateral, and sectoral cooperation for ports as nodes of the global maritime shipping network, rooted in regional and national contexts
Digi and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) today announced its Business Continuity Digitalisation (BCD) Programme aimed at helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) mitigate the impact of Covid-19 by leveraging digital opportunities.
With a series of activities in the pipeline taking place throughout the year, the BCD Programme will focus on equipping SMEs with the right knowledge to realise the benefits of digitalisation as well as utilise the right digital tools and solutions to get their businesses running seamlessly.
Commenting on how Digi strives to help SMEs be BCD-ready, Praveen Rajan, Digi’s Chief Digital Officer says, “The Movement Control Order (MCO) has driven many SMEs to leverage digital means to remain in operations, from going into e-commerce to managing their workforce remotely, setting a ‘new normal’ in how businesses operate. What we hope to achieve with our BCD Programme is to help SMEs adapt to this changing landscape. During this period, Digi has remained focused in protecting our customers and employees, as well as maintaining our ongoing digitalisation efforts for business continuity. Based on our best practices, we will be consolidating a ‘playbook’ with solutions that SMEs can reference and utilise for their BCD efforts.”
The BCD Programme is in collaboration with MDEC’s 100GD initiative, which sets out to enable SMEs to adopt digital solutions to improve customer experiences and enhance efficiency of their business operations.
Surina Shukri, MDEC’s Chief Executive Officer adds, “Many SMEs are still experiencing interrupted supply-chain and difficulties operating business. This is on top of having to manage cash flow and workforce capacity as well. To ensure businesses can overcome these challenges, MDEC and Digi are collaborating to provide the necessary digital tools and support that SMEs need to continue running their business in this current situation. This will certainly help SMEs accelerate their recovery and enable them to adapt successfully in the post-MCO era. Together, we are targeting over 5,000 SMEs to benefit from the Programme including the digital workshops.”
Gearing up to be BCD-ready
SMEs can look forward to Digi’s BCD Programme, featuring a series of free webinars and online clinics that will address critical areas for a business’ digital transformation. Every webinar will provide practical steps and resources on digitalisation for efficient operations, maintaining sales, engaging customer support and more, especially while we face a once-in-a-generation shift due to the Covid-19 pandemic and change of consumer behaviour.
Registration is now open for the first webinar, which will be held on 10 June 2020. For more details, visit here .
As part of the Programme, Digi will also help SMEs assess their business’ BCD readiness, and with the findings, SMEs can then get guidance on the best digital tools and solution providers to partner with, as well as how the tools and solutions can help their business survive and grow.
Discovering digital solutions that are eligible for grant
In addition, Digi will also walk SMEs through details of the SME Business Digitalisation Grant. Designed to encourage SMEs to adopt digitalisation in their daily operations, the grant was announced during Budget 2020, with the government committing a 50 percent matching grant of up to RM5,000 per company for the subscription of any three of these five digitalisation areas: electronic point of sale system (e-POS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), electronic HR payroll system/CRM, e-procurement, and digital marketing and sales platforms.
SMEs who subscribe to the following digital solutions from Digi are eligible to apply for the grant:
Providing relief to SMEs
Supporting MDEC in its #DigitalvsCovid campaign, Digi introduced its Business Continuity Booster Programme in March when the MCO first kicked in, covering essential connectivity and turnkey services to help SMEs stay connected and productive. More about this here: www.digi-x.my.booster.
MDEC launched the #DigitalvsCovid campaign to marshal local tech companies to extend digital solutions and services to affected domestic businesses especially SMEs and micro-enterprises.
SMEs are encouraged to apply for both the SME Business Digitalisation Grant as well as the tech solutions and services under MDEC’s #DigitalvsCovid umbrella of assistance not only as a means to power through this challenging period but also as a chance to embrace digital.
According to the Department of Statistics of Malaysia (DOSM), the number of establishments in 2018 that have operated in the wholesale and retail trade sector were 469,024, recording a growth of 4.8 percent.
Selangor had recorded the highest number of establishments with 94,857, followed by W.P. Kuala Lumpur, which had 71,433 establishments.
The DOSM further stated that the total sales value of goods and services generated was RM 1,270.8 billion with a growth of 8.6 percent. Whereas, the wholesale trade sub-sector was the largest contributor for total sales value of goods and services with RM 663.7 billion, followed by retail trade at RM 459.9 billion and motor vehicles at RM 147.2 billion.
Micro-sized establishments registered the highest number establishment of 378,145, followed by small-sized establishments at 75,736 and medium-sized establishments at 8,904.
Meanwhile, women-owned establishments in wholesale and retail trade sector recorded 91,043 establishments with a groth of 4.7 percent.
“Sales value amounted to RM 81.3 billion with a share of 6.4 percent to the total sales value for this sector. Total number of persons engaged registered amounted to267,974,” the DOSM said.
In terms of information and communication technology, 89.6 per cent establishments used computers in Wholesale & retail trade sector. Meanwhile, 84.0 percent establishments used internet and 52.2 per cent used web presence.
Furthermore, Selangor had also recorded the highest e-commerce income of RM 44.2 billion.
Bursa Malaysia Derivatives (“BMD”) has announced that its FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Futures (“FKLI”) contract registered an all-time high in daily trading volume of 65,000 contracts.
The FKLI contract all-time high, recorded on May 27 had surpassed the previous record of 61,429 contracts registered on Oct 29, 2019.
Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, Chairman of BMD said, “As we continue to build upon the strong momentum achieved last quarter, I am encouraged to see the growing interest by foreign institutions which accounted for 80% of the total trading volume. This is an indication of the consistent growth in confidence of BMD’s products by local and international market participants to manage their price risk exposures amidst the global uncertainties.”
The Ministry of Health has identified 10 new cases bringing total number of active cases in the country to 1,345.
With 86 new recoveries bring total number of recovered cases to 6,169, recovery rate is at 80.86 percent.
Zero death have been reported. Total deaths from the virus outbreak is currently at 115.
Total number of active cases recorded in the country is at 7,629 cases currently.
Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of global cybersecurity company Kaspersky, has signed an open letter (link: https://cyberpeaceinstitute.
The global call, initiated by the Geneva-based CyberPeace Institute, has also been signed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former presidents, international organisation leaders and other high profile influencers.
Commenting on the joint letter, Eugene Kaspersky said since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic they have been continuously monitoring how cybercriminals have been exploiting the situation.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen many cyberattacks on hospitals and health institutions in many countries, and we consider them to be terrorist attacks. As long as the coronavirus continues to cause serious social concerns, attackers will continue to use it for their own purposes,” Kaspersky said.
He added that they are doing what they can to help medical institutions during this pandemic.
In March they made a decision to provide healthcare organisations with free fully-featured product licenses for six months.
“But we call on governments and international organisations to take more action and do everything possible to stop these terribly damaging, often life-threatening cyberattacks on medical institutions,” Kaspersky added.
TIME dotcom Berhad has recorded consolidated Group revenue of RM 293.9 million for the quarter ending March 31. According to the group, the consolidated Group revenue recorded a 12 percent year-on-year increase.
The increase was driven by higher overall revenue growth seen across all core product and customer groups.
Additionally, a current quarter consolidated profit before tax of RM 125.6 million was recorded. The company attributes it to a higher overall revenue growth, a large net gain on foreign exchange, lower interest expense and a higher share of profit from associates.
“The remainder of 2020 will be a challenging one, not just for our industry, but for the global economy at large. Thankfully, we enter this period with a robust operational framework and a solid balance sheet. This should help us weather through the rest of the year as we adapt to the challenges posed by Covid-19,” said Afzal Abdul Rahim, TIME’s Commander-in-Chief.
The Group is currently looking into prioritising a 100 percent network availability and stability throughout the MCO period. On the regional front, the Group will continue to work with partners to tap into the increasing demand across Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
“The Group will also assess opportunities to further establish itself as a key regional data centre player and operator with the intention to unlock the long-term potential of its data centre business,” Afzal said.
According to GBG’s APAC Covid-19 fraud risk poll results, digital retail banking services such as e-wallet, e-loan, digital onboarding and digital credit card applications are growing in demand.
37 percent of the respondents also see transaction fraud as the fraud typology that they are most vulnerable to.
According to June Lee, Managing Director, APAC, GBG, standard fraud model deteriorates over time exposing businesses to new fraud typologies and fraud losses.
The global technology specialist in fraud and compliance in its efforts to tackle the issue announced its expansion of AI and machine learning capabilities for its transaction and payment monitoring solution.
‘Predator’, its latest launch aims to make deep learning and predictive analytics available to their entire digital risk management customer journey.
“The ability to easily spot complex fraud and misused identities
in first party bust outs and mule payments, high volume and high velocity frauds such as online banking account takeover and card not present frauds across both onboarding and ongoing customer payments becomes more pressing today,” said Michelle Weatherhead, Operations Director, APAC, GBG.
“In addition, segments like SME lending and microfinancing would be able to harness machine learning to spot irregularity in borrower patterns by assimilating both identity, profile and behavioural type data. GBG Machine Learning is able to analyse large sums of data using algorithmic calculations on multiple features to determine fraud probability in greater accuracy,” said Alex Low, Data Scientist, GBG.
As the demand for gloves grow exponentially globally, HSBC Malaysia is reaffirming their commitment towards supporting Malaysian glove companies.
“Malaysian glove companies are operating at full-capacity to meet the urgent need for medical gloves due to the pandemic. As the world’s largest medical glove supplier producing as many as three out of four gloves in the market, we have seen a steep increase in order and demand for gloves even as most of Malaysia’s economy remains
sluggish,” said Andrew Sill, Country Head of Commercial Banking, HSBC Malaysia.
Two exemplary cases of HSBC’s clients in glove manufacturing who have gone above and beyond during the pandemic are Latexx Manufacturing Sdn Bhd – Semperit Group (Latexx) and Supermax Corporation Berhad (“Supermax”). Latexx produces medical gloves and has exported more than 90 percent of its products overseas. Taking a more proactive step at home, Latexx has been supplying gloves to the local hospitals as part of their CSR initiative to help frontliners and fellow Malaysians. Latexx has also gone the extra mile by providing medical gloves to the business community around Taiping, Perak where it is located.
Supermax, an international manufacturer, distributor and marketer of high quality medical gloves donated and co-sponsored a total of 6 million gloves between March and April to hospitals and medical professionals to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
“HSBC Malaysia banks 70% of the top glove manufacturers with some of our relationships dating back to 1997. As a longstanding partner to glove manufacturers, we have supported and journeyed with them through the ups and downs of the economy by providing them banking facilities and trade extensions as needed,” shared Andrew.
“The bank also stepped up during the early period of the Movement Control Order and enabled clients to continue to perform day-to-day transactions by accepting e-signatures and acknowledging documents in soft copies, while maintaining high level of service standards and security.”
“We have contributed RM1 million to the Association of Banks in Malaysia for Mercy Malaysia in aid of the health care system and those in need,” Andrew said.
In addition, HSBC has contributed approximately RM200,000 to various charities to support the low income earners in terms of necessities, income generation as well as providing aid to hospitals in the country that are committed to fighting the pandemic. At the same time, we at HSBC Malaysia are also working hand in hand to raise funds for the underprivileged
communities with necessities during this period,” added Andrew.
Property technology company, PropertyGuru Group has launched a new digital feature, ‘StoryTeller’ into its sales enablement platform, ‘PropertyGuru FastKey’.
FastKey digitises and automates the entire property sales process from project launch to close of sale and currently serves over 500 projects from 100 property developers in Southeast Asia.
The ‘StoryTeller’ feature creates a digitised 360 degree immersive walkthroughs of a project, its units as well as the surrounding cityscape.
Offered as an additional feature to FastKey customers, the feature aims to transform any project at any stage of development or construction into a 3D space to create 360-degrees interactive walkthroughs of their projects, surrounding cityscapes and units for agents and consumers.
“It brings the project and show flat to the property buyer’s doorstep to view, select and even register interest for a unit based on their preference and as per real-time investory availability in the project,” the Group said in a press statement.
The launch comes in a time where social distancing measures are being implemented amid the Covid-19 pandemic that have also reshaped consumer behaviours and with it, expectations around property buying and selling.
“FastKey is a step forward in our commitment to improve the property buying and selling experience as we leverage our constant
investments in technology. Not only has FastKey brought unprecedented speed to the sales process for property developers – streamlining transactions has resulted in improved efficiency, higher cost savings, and enhanced customer satisfaction,” said Jeremy Williams, chief business officer of PropertyGuru Group.
“Developers will have reduced dependency on physical galleries and agents can host viewings to close deals remotely. International buyers can gain access to an array of options at their fingertips and can evaluate them before visiting physical sales galleries,” he added.
RHB Research has reiterated its ‘buy’ call on Padini with a new TP of RM 3.03 from RM 3.10, with 11 percent upside and 3.6 percent FY21F yield.
“Padini’s 9MFY20 results were below expectations as we underestimated the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic and Movement Control Order (MCO),” the research house said.
Padini’s 9MFY20 net profit of RM 92 million (-13 percent YoY) missed expectations, having only met 62 percent/71 percent of the research house’s forecasts.
The negative deviation is attributed to the worse-than-expected impact from the pandemic and the resulting MCO, which forced Padini to fully suspend the operation of all its stores.
“Post results, we trim FY20-22 earnings forecasts by 25 percent, 5 percent, and 9.2 percent respectively to pencil in lower sales growth and outlet expansion assumptions. Correspondingly, our DCF-driven TP drops to RM 3.03 from RM 3.10. TP implies 12.5x P/E FY21F, close to -0.5 SD over the 5-year mean,” the research house said in its trading notes.
YoY, 9MFY20 sales declined by 6.8 percent, mainly dragged by
a lacklustre 3QFY20 (-26.8 percent YoY).
Soft earnings are likely to persist into 4QFY20 despite the Aidil Fitri festival, considering the longer MCO period and reduced festive shopping crowds.
“We expect earnings to recover in FY21, underpinned by the strategic presence of Padini stores and value-for-money product offerings. The latter could place Padini in a good position to capitalise on potential downtrading as a result of fragile consumer sentiment and weak spending power.”
RHB Research has maintained ‘buy’ call on Cocoaland with a new RM 2.45 target price from RM 2.70, with a 30 percent expected total return.
According to the research house, Cocoaland’s 2Q20 earnings are likely to see export sales en route to recovery but local demand should be negatively affected by the Movement Control Order’s (MCO) implementation.
“1Q20 earnings of MYR5.1m (-39% YoY, -62% QoQ) were below our and Street’s expectations, accounting for 14% of full-year forecasts. The negative variance was mainly attributed to Covid-19’s worse-thanexpected impact on gummy products demand, particularly in China and South Korea,” it said.
Additionally, packaging costs are likely to remain suppressed in the near term due to low crude oil prices and potential resin oversupply in the market. Sugar prices, which contribute 10 percent of material costs, also remain low after a sharp decline earlier this year.
“We cut our FY20-22 earnings by 13 percent, 10 percent, and 10 percent, imputing more conservative sales and margins assumptions. The pandemic’s impact is worse than our initial expectation,” RHB Research said.
“Key risks to our call and earnings forecasts include a sharp rise in raw materials costs, stronger RM/USD, and further delays in the commissioning of new production lines.”
RHB Retail Research says Yinson Holdings Berhad broke away from its minor consolidation phase in the latest session with an upside breach of the MYR5.68 resistance point.
In a trading note, the research house says a positive bias may emerge above this level, while resistance marks are at MYR6.05, followed by MYR6.50.
“A stop-loss can be placed below MYR5.51,” it says.
Struggling New Zealand media giant Stuff Limited was sold in a management buy-out deal for the symbolic fee of NZ$1.00 (US$0.61), the group’s Australian owners Nine Entertainment announced Monday.
Nine said that Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher would take over the company, which operates New Zealand’s most popular news website, stuff.co.nz, and titles such as Wellington’s Dominion Post and the Christchurch Press.
“The sale of Stuff is expected to (be) complete by May 31,” Nine said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.
Boucher, who joined the Press as a reporter in 1993 and has spent most of her career at the company, said it was “a new era” for Stuff.
“It is great to take control of our own future with the move to local ownership and the opportunity to build further on the trust of New Zealanders, who turn to us for local and national news and entertainment every day,” she told stuff.co.nz.
The one-dollar price reflects the difficulties in New Zealand’s media sector, where COVID-19’s impact has slashed revenues already eroded by global internet giants such as Facebook and Google.
Stuff’s main domestic rival, NZME, had its own one-dollar bid for the company rejected earlier this month.
Stuff and NZME have both asked staff to take pay cuts due to the virus-induced downturn, with NZME cutting 200 jobs.
German magazine giant Bauer Media Group closed its New Zealand titles with the loss of 237 jobs last month, citing the “severe economic impact” of the pandemic.
Shares in Nine, which had been rumoured to be keen on offloading its New Zealand assets for more than a year, were up 2.9 percent at Aus$1.41 in early trading on the ASX.
Nine obtained Stuff when it acquired the company’s Australian owner, newspaper group Fairfax Media in late 2018.
Thailand’s premier on Wednesday urged parliament to approve the kingdom’s biggest-ever stimulus package to revive an economy battered by coronavirus, which has brought tourism to a standstill, slashed exports and left millions jobless.
The 1.9 trillion baht ($59.6 billion) package would be a much-needed financial boost for Southeast Asia’s second biggest economy, which is expected to shrink by 5-6 percent in 2020.
Members of parliament — who inaugurated a new building on Wednesday — are set to discuss three bills over the next five days covering healthcare, unemployment and a fund to stabilise markets and boost purchasing power.
The opposition Pheu Thai party has vowed to grill the ruling military-backed government — which holds a slim majority — on the bill and its handling of the epidemic.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha pleaded for the swift passage of the bill, saying the administration was currently attempting to manage the economy “using the central budget, the next year’s budget, or transferring” from other areas.
“But it is not enough,” Prayut told the opening session.
“To get the country back on track… we urgently need the budget of 1.9 trillion baht.”
About 550 billion baht ($17.2 billion) is expected to go to farmers and informal workers such as street vendors and those employed in massage parlours and bars.
Tourism-reliant Thailand started showing the first signs of the virus in January when Bejing prohibited its citizens from travelling abroad. Chinese make up a majority of the kingdom’s visitors.
Tourism revenues dropped by 40 percent in the first quarter, Prayut said, and the next quarter will be even “more severe”.
The virus toll, which stands at a little over 3,000 infections and 57 deaths, has slowed in recent weeks and the country is gradually reopening.
But the restrictions — and a ban on inbound flights — have left Thais struggling to put food on the table.
A local trade association estimates that 6.5 million people will be permanently out of a job by the end of 2020.
So far, more than 20 million have registered for a government handout of 5,000 baht (US$150), while many others say they have been left out of the scheme.
The kingdom’s economy was flagging even before the pandemic.
Many in politically febrile Thailand are unhappy with the ex-generals, who seized power in a 2014 coup and still run the government. – AFP
The Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) has adopted a variety of online platforms to support businesses as a way to boost their productivity and business growth.
“The shift towards digitisation is critical in light of the social and movement restrictions of the MCO, and to rise above the compounded challenges of the pandemic encompassing health, economy and social crises,” said MPC deputy director general Zahid Ismail.
“Our aim is to bring productivity activities to every businesses that connects to the Internet,” he added.
Among the platforms MPC has in place includes the United Public Consultation (UPC) portal , Business Virtual Advisory Clinics and Business Virtual Mentoring which aims to support in rebuilding businesses impacted from the adverse impacts of Covid-19.
As of May 2020, more than 10,000 users have registered on the UPC portal to provide their feedback and recommendations on regulations.
More than 100 webinars have been held, with over 30,000 participants. More than 200 companies have applied online for the Business Virtual Advisory Clinics, which has recorded a satisfaction level of 93 percent. As for the Business Virtual Mentoring, approximately 50 entrepreneurs have participated in the programme.
Additionally, MPC will be deploying the Online Productivity Link Wage System (PLWS) certification programme which provides certifications for companies that practice productivity gain sharing with their employees.
To date, approximately 80,000 companies have obtained the offline certification, and MPC expects more to do so once PLWS goes online.
Furthermore, one of the post-MCO implementation also includes helping hard-hit businesses in the tourism sector. MPC aims to help these businesses in pivoting their existing business models to a new virtual tourism business model through the Tourism Productivity Nexus (TPN) Virtual Advisory Clinic.
Champion (Head) of the TPN Uzaidi Udanis said almost 150 companies directly related to tourism attended the T-VAC sessions which were held over the past two weeks.
And as a result, tourism industry stakeholders have reached the consensus that the pre-Covid-19 tourism model involving large tour groups would not survive through the pandemic.
“An innovative concept, virtual tourism offers real-time online experiences to tourists from the safety and comfort of their homes,” Uzaidi said.
According to Zahid, MPC plans to utilise the same approach to find innovative ways for businesses to pivot to the new normal of conducting business in a post-Covid-19 world, throughout all the nine Productivity Nexus.
“Despite the prevalent challenges, businesses have quickly adapted to the Covid-19 crisis to harvest the productivity benefits of online technologies which include reduced costs, as well as better time management,” he said.
The Ministry of Health has identified 15 new cases bringing total number of active cases in the country to 1,421.
With 42 new recoveries bring total number of recovered cases to 6,083, recovery rate is at 79.8 percent.
One death have been reported. Total deaths from the virus outbreak is currently at 115.
Total number of active cases recorded in the country is at 7,619 cases currently.
The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC) has announced plans to allocate RM 452.8 million to aid businesses impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The allocation will be executed under a business recovery plan to further support the stability of the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“MEDAC has tabled the Entrepreneur and Cooperative Recovery Plan during a Cabinet meeting. The recovery plan outlines six key strategies to support the stability of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, revitalise business operations in the near term and will ensure entrepreneurs remain competitive and sustainable,” MEDAC’s minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
“It contains 30 programmes that will be implemented in two phases, namely the immediate measure from May to December 2020 and the medium-term from January 2021 to May 2021,” he added.
The recovery plan will be executed in two phases, with the first phase requires, RM 230.1 million, of which RM 175.79 million will be implemented for six new programmes and 10 existing allocations under the ministry and its agencies.
An additional RM 54.31 million will be needed to implement 14 new programmes.
As for the second phase, the ministry will allocate RM 222.69 million in order to carry out 19 new programmes and 11 existing programmes.
MEDAC is also working alongside the Ministry of Finance in coming up with Post Covid-19 Short and Medium-Term Economic Recovery and Restart Plan.
The ministry has also further proposed an entrepreneurship restart plan with an allocation of RM261.21 million
Amazon.com Inc. may buy driverless car startup Zoox, accelerating its reach in autonomous-vehicle technology.
Amazon and Zoox are in advanced negotiations of a deal that would value the startup at less than the USD3.2 billion it was estimated to be worth in a funding round two years ago, the Journal reported, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.
The take-over talks could yet break down, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
Based in Foster City near San Francisco, Zoox was founded in 2014 with a mission to build a “fleet of fully autonomous, battery electric, zero-emission vehicles that are purpose-built and optimized for ridesharing in cities.”
Zoox late last year targeted Las Vegas as a market for an “autonomous driving fleet and service” by vehicles that could be summoned using a smartphone app, according to its website.
