News about Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): The two brothers of the Shamsuddin family, Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin and Datuk Shaziman Shamsuddin of Sapura Holdings, have come forward to donate RM1 million to help fight the COVID-19 heath crisis.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced today that it is allowing banking institutions to tap into their capital buffers, and to provide flexibility on several operating guidelines as the nation grapples with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Health director-general (DG) Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced one more death from COVID-19 late last night, bringing the total number of fatalities to 16.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): Automatic moratorium on loan repayments will be granted to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and individuals — an additional measure taken by Bank Negara Malaysia to relieve the burden on businesses and households that are expected to be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): The Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) and Malaysian Islamic Chamber of Commerce (MICC) is asking the government to allow active contributors of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to withdraw their 11% contribution to the fund over the past six months.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) will waive the annual licensing fees for 2020 on the core regulated activity of all Capital Markets Services Licence (CMSL) entities with pre-tax profit of RM5 million or less during financial year 2019.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): The Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced several measures following the Economic Action Council (EAC) announcement earlier yesterday, including a tax deduction for donations and contributions made to the COVID-19 Fund and the Ministry of Health (MOH).

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today acknowledged that some hospitals have resorted to makeshift personal protective equipment (PPE) to treat COVID-19 cases and explained that this was due to a distribution issue, Malaysiakini reported today.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The Ministry of Health (MoH) today announced that four more people have died from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll to 14, while a record 212 new cases were confirmed today, bringing the total number of positive cases to 1,518.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The Malaysia Shopping Malls Association (PPKM) is appealing to the government to provide urgent relief as it estimates that the shopping mall industry will lose more than RM750 million, excluding turnover statistics from the retail sector, during the 14-day movement control order (MCO).