Star Online:Malaysia ranked top safest country

The World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2011 report revealed that Malaysia was ranked first among 19 upper-middle income countries for safety, putting the country on par with other nations such as France and Belgium.

Malaysia attained 12th position, one position ahead of United States which ranked 13th and Britain ranked 14th in country’s safety.

WJP Rule of Law Index director Juan Botero said the index measures implementation and enforcement of laws in practice and their effects on people’s lives.

The report showed that Malaysia scored 1 for effectively limited civil conflicts and 0.5 for the absence of crime and people not resorting to violence.The Index score range is between 0 being the lowest and 1 being the highest.


WJP executive director Hongxia Liu said that acquiring the rule of law was an ongoing challenge and a continuous work in progress in all countries.Liu added the Index is not designed to shame or blame but to provide helpful benchmarks for other countries in the same regions that had similar legal cultures and income levels.


The Crime NKRA efforts under the GTP saw street crime rate brought down by 35% and overall index crime by 15% in 2010.

UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR (UniKL), GIATMARA AND ALBUKHARY CONSORTIUM PAVES WAY FOR NEXT GENERATION HIGH SPEED BROADBAND AND 4G WORKFORCE

17 June 2011 – UniKL and Giat MARA signed an MOU with Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd, a Company under the flagship of the Albukhary Group. UniKL also signed an MOU with ALBUKHARY consortium consisting of Symphonet Sdn Bhd , Alkarismi Technologies Sdn Bhd and Radmik Solutions Sdn Bhd. Under the MOU, UniKL will be the first centre of excellence in the country to train, develop skilled and qualified workforce for the next generation high speed broadband and 4G industry for both domestic and regional consumption.

Besides the development of the human talent, this MOU also paves the way of developing the new breed of technopreneurs specialising in 4G and next generation high speed broadband in future telecommunication technology. UniKL and Giat Mara will be part of this scheme to produce approximately 5000 technopreneurs nationwide utilizing Giat Mara centres and existing resources from MARA.


Through the creation of the Centre Of Excellence, the technopreneur program shall focus in ICT and broadband addressing the needs to bridge the digital divide, inline with the government’s National Broadband Intiative (NBI) plan. The main objective of this collaboration is to develop skilled technopreneurs to venture into broadband and ICT business.This technopreneur program will also open opportunities for UniKL students and GIAT MARA trainees to participate with ICT industry playersin developping moreskilled workforce for the nation. UniKL is also extending this program to other local Institutions of Higher Learning as part of the technopreneurs development agenda.

UniKL is working with the Albukhary consortium and Perfisio, an Utusan Melayu subsidiary, supported by Yayasan Guru Malaysia to provide a comprehensive Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) framework that is produced by Malaysian experts, for the Malaysian education market. UniKL’s VLE framework currently includes content management, psychometric modules, learning courseware intelligence and a complete roadmap of state-of-the-art VLE products and features for the next decade and beyond. This effort shall involve more than 500 software developers and content experts to manage a framework that is of exceptional quality and usability.


Albukhary Group is on track to roll out its truly 4G Network and Services. Puncak Semangat, one of the 9 LTE 4G licensees is currently on track to roll out its 4G network nationwide. This is expected to be one of the first LTE 4G implementation in the region. This is inline with the government’s ultimate goal of a high-income advanced economy in providing quality income, quality life and quality opportunities for all Malaysians.


Commenting on this collaboration, the university’s Chairman, Datuk Dr. Adham Baba said, “This collaboration is the best platform and provides a new paradigm in the way in creating Technoprenuer graduate from UniKL and Giat MARA to support the implementation of High Speed Broadband Project (HSBB) and the National Broadband Initiative (NBI).”

Meanwhile, Datuk Abdullah Kadir Bacha, Puncak Semangat Director said, “We are confident our synergy with UniKL will provide a significant platform to nurture and enhance the nessesary development skills for the young and future workforce to address national ICTneeds”

Malaysia: Unlocking the potential

• We raise our 2011 GDP growth forecast to 5.5% (from 5.2%) and CPI forecast to 3.6% (from3.4%).
• We revise our MYR forecasts to 2.98, 2.90 and 2.85 for USD/MYR from 3.00, 2.95 and 2.90 in 3, 6 and 12 months respectively.
• Growth targets this year should be easily met, while inflationary pressures continue to build.
• The bigger issue is meeting the 6% growth targets over the next 10 years.
• Structurally, ambitious plans are in place to propel Malaysia through the next stage of development.
• The key challenge is to raise the level of private investments, which has been anemic since the Asian crisis.
• Pace of change has always been tied to the complexities of the political landscape.
• We think overall, the potential for success looks more promising than before…
• …but tough decisions on reforms are ultimately what is needed to catalyze the economic transformation process.
• We still expect rate hikes to re-commence in 2Q2011 totaling 50 bp this year, with high household debt likely a consideration against sharper moves.
• We expect other tightening measures in the form of further SRR hikes and macro-prudential measures.
• A stronger exchange rate is consistent across the various economic objectives—we have revised stronger our already bullish MYR forecasts.

PETROLEUM INCENTIVES

Malaysia’s oil and gas production is depleting and sustaining production will be more challenging due to matured basins, technically challenging reserves and stranded marginal oil and gas fields. PETRONAS has sought the Economic Council’s endorsement of new tax incentives to be incorporated in Petroleum Income Tax Act (PITA) to promote development of new oil and gas resources, incentivise development of technically challenging resources and further stimulate domestic exploration activity. The new incentives are expected to lead to additional petroleum revenue of RM58.2 billion to the Government over the next 20 years. There will be a notional trade-off of RM8.1 billion in the form of revenue foregone from investment tax allowances, reduced tax and export duty waiver for marginal fields.


The five new incentives proposed to unlock and monetise stranded resources are:

•Investment tax allowance of between 60 - 100 percent of capital expenditure to be deducted against statutory income to encourage the development of capital-intensive projects.
(i.e. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), High CO2 gas fields, High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT), Deepwater and Infrastructure projects for Petroleum Operations)

•Reduced tax rate from 38 percent to 25 percent for marginal oil field development to improve commerciality of the developments.

•Accelerated Capital Allowance to 5 years from 10 years for marginal oil field development where full utilisation of capital cost deducted could improve project viability.

•Qualifying Exploration Expenditure transfer between non-contiguous petroleum agreement with the same partnership or sole proprietor to enhance contractors’ risk taking attitude, which could encourage higher level of exploration activity.

•Waiver of export duty on oil produced and exported from marginal oil field development to improve project commerciality.

GNI
Approximately RM50 billion over 20 years