Malaysia – Korea 40 Year LEP, Silicon Valley Bank, Maybank First To Offer EV Financing, Among News Leads Which Caught Our Attention – BusinessToday

Malaysia – Korea 40 Year LEP Makes Room For Greater Bilateral Trade to Rise By 20%, At Least

The Republic of Korea (ROK) stands as the eighth largest trading partner for Malaysia with total trade amounting to RM114.55 billion (USD26.01 billion), in 2022 which represents an increase of 29.7% compared to RM88.31 billion (USD21.01 billion) in 2021.

Malaysia’s major exports to South Korea in 2022 were E&E products, LNG, petroleum products, manufactures of metal, iron and steel products; while Malaysia’s major imports from ROK in 2022 were petroleum products, E&E products, chemical and chemical products, machinery, equipment and parts, as well as iron and steel products.

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Silicon Valley Bank, Many Wonder?

The California bank was closed by regulators on Friday and put under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). That followed a tumultuous few days, including a botched capital call and a rush of depositors withdrawing their funds.

The speed of SVB’s demise was especially striking. On Tuesday, SVB CEO Greg Becker was at an investor conference answering questions about what he does to relax. A few days later, the bank he led had collapsed.

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Maybank First Bank To Offer EV and Hybrid Vehicle Integrated Financing Solution

As Malaysia embarks on electric mobility in a big way, Maybank has become the first bank to introduce an integrated automobile financing solution for Electric vehicles (EV) and Hybrid covering various aspects of owning these vehicles including insurance and takaful coverage as well as EV charging privileges.

This is in line with the Group’s aspiration to become the sustainability leader in the region by fulfilling its commitments of mobilising a recently revised target of RM80 billion in sustainable financing to customers by 2025 as well as achieving a carbon neutral position by 2030.

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Credit Suisse In Crisis: What Went Wrong?

Switzerland’s role as banker to the world’s rich is built on a reputation for institutional discretion and dull reliability. That only makes the scandals, public legal battles and mounting losses at Credit Suisse more striking and hard to comprehend.

In mid-March, unease about the bank’s mounting problems snowballed and its shares slumped, forcing management to appeal to Swiss banking authorities for a public vote of confidence.

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Disbursement Of STR Phase 2 To Be Done By Mid-Ramadan Or Early April

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants the disbursement of the Rahmah Cash Aid (STR) Phase 2 to be done by mid-Ramadan or early April before Aidilfitri.

He said the Ministry of Finance and the relevant agencies have been notified of this instruction in a bid to alleviate the burden of the people, especially among the B40 group.

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Malaysia Emerging As One Of Asia-Pacific’s Key Digital Infrastructure Hubs

Malaysia’s Government is seen to reinvigorate the nation’s development surrounding digitalisation plans, easing its regulatory landscape and technology-friendly policies.

The prime objective is ensuring Malaysia emerges as one of the key digital infrastructure hubs in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Capital Gains Tax As A Strategic Fiscal Policy Lever

In the re-presented Budget 2023, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim who’s also the Finance Minister proposed the introduction of capital gains tax (CGT) on unlisted shares of private limited companies.

Although seen to be modest by proponents of the policy, it’s definitively a step in the right direction and could well provide the base/basis for an eventual expansion at an unspecified later stage.

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