Najib: Japan helping Malaysia prepare for industrial revolution
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have agreed to implement the fifth Agreed Export Tonnage Scheme (AETS) beginning today.
In a statement yesterday, the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) said under the scheme, the three ITRC member countries would restrict exports of natural rubber (NR) for a specific time frame, with the objective of addressing the current declining NR price trend.
“The ITRC will continue to implement other measures with WASHINGTON: The US economy has gathered steam this year and will warrant continued interest rate increases amid a global recovery, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told congressional leaders.
“The economic expansion is increasingly broad based across sectors as well as across much of the global economy,” Yellen said in prepared remarks delivered to the Joint Economic Committee.
Stock indexes, bond yields and the dollar were all higher in initial trading.
With weak inflation likely to prove ‘transitory,’ she said “we continue to expect that gradual increases in the federal funds rate will be appropriate.”
She did not in her prepared remarks comment on the timing of the next rate increase, which markets now expect and which Fed officials have telegraphed will OTTAWA/MONTREAL: Just days ahead of a Beijing visit, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet to decide on whether to launch talks on a free trade deal that China has long pressed for and could face a cool reception over his government’s decision to snub Chinese interest in Bombardier.
China wants a free trade pact similar to the ones it has with Australia and New Zealand but Trudeau, aware of domestic unease at the idea, is moving slowly.
“No decisions have been taken at this end as a government,” a Canadian source familiar with the matter said about the possibility of talks being announced during Trudeau’s Dec 3-7 visit.
Trudeau’s office declined to comment. KUALA LUMPUR: Japanese companies have contributed to Malaysia’s agenda of generating sustainable and inclusive growth, while transforming the country towards being fully prepared for the Fourth lndustrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), says Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
He said Japan played a significant part in Malaysia’s growth, being a top sources of foreign investments since the 1980s and as of September this year, it stood as the second largest foreign investor after Singapore, with investments valued at US$16.6 billion (RM70 billion).
“Japan is also the foremost source of foreign direct investments in Malaysia’s manufacturing sector. At end-2016, 2,621 projects with Japanese participation and worth US$27.8 billion (RM88.5 billion) had been implemented,” Najib said in his keynote address at the Malaysia Nikkei Business Forum 2017 yesterday.
Najib said for the first half of this year, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority approved 16 manufacturing projects with Japanese participation and worth RM559 million, with 75 per cent of these being reinvestments by Japanese companies already operating in the country.
He highlighted that these reinvestments showed the continued trust and confidence in Malaysia as a prime place for companies to conduct business.
The Prime Minister said Malaysia had been collaborating with Japan since 1982 under the Look East Policy and both countries recently reaffirmed their commitment to
Japan is also the foremost source of foreign direct investments in Malaysia’s manufacturing sector. At end2016, 2,621 projects with Japanese participation and worth US$27.8 billion (RM88.5 billion) had been implemented. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister
the objective of ensuring the wellbeing of rubber smallholders, as we strongly believe that a fair and remunerative price levels will benefit all stakeholders in the NR industry, in particular rubber smallholders,” it said.
The ITRC said the measure was one of the outcomes of the ITRC Senior Officials Meeting which was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Wednesday.
The AETS was first introduced at the first Special ITRC Consultancy Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on Aug 15, 2012 and was implemented come during the upcoming Dec 12-13 policy meeting.
According to minutes of the Fed’s last meeting ‘many participants’ felt a rate increase would likely be warranted ‘in the near term.’ At his confirmation hearing to become Fed chair, Fed Governor Jerome Powell on Tuesday said the case for a December rate increase was ‘coming together.’
The one question mark involves inflation, which has fallen this year and has been consistently below the Fed’s 2 percent target.
Some policymakers feel the Fed should not raise rates until inflation accelerates, and even argue that the Fed’s talk of rate hikes itself has become a problem by weakening public and market expectations about the path of prices.
In what may be one of her last public appearances before leaving the Fed chair early next
Trudeau is caught in a tough position.
Although polls consistently show Canadians are split over the merits of a trade deal, Canada needs to diversify exports to offset the possible damage done if the United States pulls out of NAFTA. Any China trade deal would take a decade to complete, insiders say.
The prime minister also faces pressure stemming from distinct signs of impatience from China.
Beijing laments what it sees as Canada’s ‘vague thinking’ about a deal, said one person briefed on the Chinese position who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the situation.
The Canadian source said the government was aware of Chinese impatience but, while diversification maintaining bilateral cooperation at an all-time high.
Under the Look East Policy, Malaysia sent its students to Japanese universities and institutes of technologies, as well as, to gain experience and industrial training. To date, more than 16,600 Malaysians had benefited from this programme.
Najib said Asia had the potential to be a lucrative market as it is estimated that 5.3 billion people would reside in this part of the world in on Oct 1 in the same year.
Meanwhile, the ITRC said the meeting also took note of the current supply and demand situation of NR and was concerned that prices were not reflective of market fundamentals.
“This is taking into account the current rainy season in the major rubber producing areas which resulted in a reduction in supply.
“In addition, stocks of NR in major importing countries such as China have shown a declining trend,” it added. - Bernama year, however, Yellen focused her writtentestimonyontheeconomy’s continuing momentum.
Job growth averaging 170,000 positions per month is enough to continue to absorb new and sidelined workers into the economy, and growth ticked up to a more than 3 percent annual rate over the last two quarters.
On a day after the stock market touched new records, Yellen said that while asset values were “high by historical standards, overall vulnerabilities in the financial sector appear moderate.”
She noted that if Congress, currently in the middle of debating tax cuts, wants to raise the country’s economic potential, lawmakers “might consider” policies to encourage business and infrastructure investment, improved education and innovation. — Reuters is important, Ottawa was setting “a high bar in terms of what trade means for Canadians.”
“While they may be impatient to move forward, I think they understand that,” the source said.
Foreign executives operating in China complain about difficult working conditions, arbitrary decisions by local courts and lack of protection for intellectual property rights.
The visit comes as plane maker Bombardier Inc is eager to win a breakthrough order from Chinese carriers for its CSeries jet, whose fuselage is made in China.
But the chance of nabbing such deals has become more cloudy after Canada encouraged Bombardier to sell a controlling stake in the CSeries program to Airbus SE rather than a Chinese firm. — Reuters 2050, while accounting for about 54 per cent of the predicted global population of 9.9 billion.
“Many have said that the 19th century belonged to the United Kingdom, while the 20th century was dominated by the United States.
“Moving to today, market experts and analysts have forecast that it is now Asia’s turn to be the epicentre of the global economy in the 21st century,” he added. — Bernama
Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia to implement export tonnage scheme Yellen: Recovery ‘increasingly broad based’ in both US and worldwide Canada’s Trudeau set for tough China talks on trade deal, plane sales