Post-Covid Emerging Market Economy Policy Framework

Now that vaccines are becoming more available (although unevenly), the advanced markets are already planning for a Post-Pandemic world. The pandemic exposed almost all the social, planetary, economic, political, military, technological and geopo...

Migrant Labour in Malaysia: Challenges Amplified by COVID-19

The term “migrant worker” is generally used to describe foreign workers who migrate from poorer countries (relative to the host country) to work in jobs categorized as either low or semi-skilled. In Malaysia, we have simply never known h...

Partial Panacea: RCEP and Inter-ASEAN Trade

ASEAN Centrality would not be very meaningful if intra-ASEAN trade remains shallow

Boosting the share of intra-ASEAN trade has long been an important part of ASEAN’s economic integration efforts. The ASEAN Economic Community established in 2015 is comm...

Vision 2020 Betrayed: Whither Malaysia?

In three weeks, the year 2020 will end. Incredibly, it has been a year largely devoid of any serious discussion of Vision 2020, its significance, and the lessons its achievements and failures offer for the future. The philosopher Santayana warned, “Those who...

Unconventional Measures For Extraordinary Times: No Excuse For More Abuse

Fiscal and monetary measures needed to fight the economic downturn, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and policy response measures, require greater government accountability and discipline to ensure success by minimising abuse be...

Preserving Workers Jobs, Sidelining Their Voice? Tripartite Dysfunction Amidst Covid-19 Crisis

Tripartite discord has been brewing in Malaysia, surrounding the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the state of jobs and wages, and the government’s responses. When Putrajaya announces a programme or a noti...

Will Covid-19 Morph into a Global Financial Crisis?

That is the million dollars question to which no one can provide a definite answer. However, we can outline the variables that determine this answer by providing an analogy. Suppose a category 5 storm were to hit a house, will the house stay inta...

The Covid Crisis: Markets In Turmoil and Fractured Trade Flows

The global economy has never faced an outbreak in recent times such as the Covid-19 and this will lead to repercussions on the economy of an unprecedented scale. In all likelihood the impact on the global economy will be worse than tha...

Covid-19 and The Disruption Of Globalisation

It appears that the Covid-19 pandemic puts into question our basic assumptions about globalisation. By extension, it means that Malaysia, as a small, open economy, has to question its position in a globalised world that is open to abrupt disruptions, an...