Secure digital services, particularly in cross-border payments and financial services, will help build consumer confidence across the region, boost participation in the digital economy, and mitigate losses from cybercrime, Ong Tee Keat, president of the Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia Pacific, said in his remarks at the forum “Unpacking the emerging challenges in […]
IN Rio de Janeiro this week, history quietly unfolded as Malaysia made its debut as a BRICS Partner Country. As the current Chair of ASEAN, Malaysia’s arrival at the summit carried added weight, marking a new chapter not only in its foreign policy posture but also in the evolving role of the Global South. The […]
The second episode of the “Malaysia’s ASEAN Moment” podcast series dives into the South China Sea. Featuring guest speaker Assoc Prof Ngeow Chow Bing from the Institute of China Studies, Universiti Malaya, the discussion reveals Malaysia’s point of view in the disputed waters. Is Malaysia doing enough to support its ASEAN member states? Can we […]
As Malaysia assumes the ASEAN chair in 2025, ISIS Malaysia brings you a podcast series diving into Malaysia’s approach and priorities from a policy perspective. Our first episode features special guest Prof Kuik Cheng Chwee from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Discussions include Malaysia’s legacies as ASEAN chair, the role of ASEAN-led multilateralism, and the ASEAN-GCC-China […]
In The Great Convergence, Richard Baldwin argues that revolutionary advances in information and communication technology (ICT) transformed globalisation in the 1990s with an economic logic only a few could fathom. In any event, the winds of change heralded the prospect of a high tech-low wages combo that drove accelerated growth in global trade as well […]
Six decades on, the Asean that Malaysia is inheriting as chair this year is a vastly different entity. Indeed, Asean has proved to be one of the fastest-growing regions over the last half-century, with the bloc now the fifth-largest economy in the world. But it is not just economic size that makes Asean matter. It […]
Contentions based on fundamentally erroneous premises may appear sound, even cogent, at first blush but when examined more closely, do not have a leg to stand on. This goes for the spate of criticisms coming from detractors on the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART), signed recently between Malaysia and the United States. In panning the deal, […]
Titled “Inclusivity and Sustainability”, Malaysia’s theme is as simple as it is symbolic. By opting to underscore its chairmanship with values rather than the typical slogans, it reflects the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim administration’s style of principles-driven leadership: forceful and robust, substantive and persuasive. As with the Madani values domestically, this opting of […]
