Search Results for: Malaysia

JAPAN’S paint and coatings sector is putting on a positive face and playing up overseas expansion efforts, as well as its traditional strength in innovation, but analysts are concerned about the longer-term outlook for domestic companies.

Sales of paint in Japan came to Japanese Yen JPY 675 billion (USD6.10 billion) in 2016, a marginal increase of around 1% on the previous year’s figure, according to the Japan Paint Manufacturers Association.…

WHEN the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) released its annual set of global statistics in June (2017), and South Korea was not among the world’s 24 countries that performed the most surgical and nonsurgical procedures in 2016, there was considerable surprise.…

SOUTH east Asia’s countries are as culturally diverse as those in Europe, and far more contrasting in economic development, so it is no surprise that their personal care product markets differ in their tastes and priorities. Fortunately, with the region’s largely emerging market economies still on a robust growth trajectory, and its more developed economies solidifying their wealth, the usual personal care product sale trend is one of expansion, albeit unevenly and sometimes with set-backs.…

TAIWAN, a now a high-income economy with a population of 23.6 million and a per capita income of USD22,453 in 2016, (International Monetary Fund figures), has been witnessing robust growth in its cosmetics and personal care products manufacturing. In 2016, this grew by 5.99% year-on-year to Taiwan dollars TWD21.1 billion (USD700 million), according to an estimate by the Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK), a Hsinchu-based public-initiated think tank.…

AFTER it was discovered in February 2016 that Chinese cybercriminals had used the Philippines banking system and local casinos to launder USD81 million of the USD101 million they had stolen from the Bangladesh central bank (the Bangladesh Bank), Filipino officials vowed to strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) controls.…

MINIMUM wage increases undertaken every two years by the Malaysian government are doing more harm than good to the country’s low-skilled workers, an expert has warned.

Dr Carmelo Ferlito, senior fellow at Malaysia’s Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) argued that a higher minimum wage could help create a “higher unemployment rate among the low-skilled workers due to automation.”…

SINGAPORE has been rated the best city in the world to live for professionals wanting to work in start-ups, according to a survey by furnished apartment web-rental platform Nestpick. The website’s researchers assessed 85 cities, looking at their start-up ecosystems. It assessed average salaries for entry level and experienced positions regarding project management, technology and marketing roles.…

IN east Asia’s complex ethnic mix of peoples, the need to avoid racial discrimination which may undermine social stability is understood clearly by governments and businesses. And while experts agree that progress is being made is tackling this potentially corrosive personnel problem, more certainly could be done.…

THE ROYAL Malaysian Customs has released advice on how the country’s new goods and services tax (GST) should be charged on goods that are sold in duty free shops, such as in international airports. While a fixed list of goods, such as food, drink, cosmetics, electronics and jewellery, can be sold GST free in these stores, business supplies for operating these shops, such as computers and lighting, attract Malaysian GST – see http://gst.customs.gov.my/en/rg/SiteAssets/industry_guides_pdf/DUTY_FREE_SHOP20170615.pdf…

THE MALAYSIAN government is pushing students to follow a new vocational higher education track in its national tertiary education system, reflecting concern that traditional courses such as humanities and social science are still more popular.

The call came from Malaysia’s human resources minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot who told students at a recent job fair in Sarawak to make the best use of entrepreneurship-focused syllabus in universities – which his government has been promoting.…