Mariana Mazzucato’s latest book, co-authored with Rosie Collington, has an eye-catching title — The Big Con: How the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilises our governments, and warps our economies. The University College London economist, whose earlier book, The Entrepreneurial ...

My Say: De-infantilising politics and government

Vision 2020, launched by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1991 at the start of the Sixth Malaysia Plan, was a comprehensive and ambitious development policy document. Positioned as a vision — an outcome to be achieved in a 30-year time frame — it was simple enough to be widely understood a...

My Say: Lessons from visions unrealised

The government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is not quite a unity government, but it was formed by uniting parties that contested against each other during the 15th general election. It is a governing coalition of rivals and, in that sense, it is a unity government. The Perikatan Nasional coali...

My Say: A hopeful agenda

When this essay is published, it would be the eve of voting day for the 15th general election. While we are uncertain at this point as to who the winners will be, one thing is for sure: governing Malaysia in the coming five years will not be easy. How the government performs will be crucial in de...

My Say: (Whoever wins) it will not be easy

Cynicism is ironically an important commodity in politics, although politics is supposedly about trust. Cynicism is about mistrust, a jaded point of view about most things formal or institutional. However, a second, possibly longer reflection about it explains how mistrust can actually be an effe...

My Say: Reject cynicism and political exceptionalism

The anticipated monetary policy tightening in developed economies is happening and it will continue until inflationary expectations are sufficiently tempered. The lesson learnt on the application of monetary policy is that if the trigger is pulled, it has to achieve the objective of dampening inf...

My Say: Potential time bombs on the horizon 

The World Bank summarises Sri Lanka’s economic woes this way: “Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic challenges are linked to years of high fiscal deficits, driven primarily by low revenue collection, and erosion of export competitiveness due to a restrictive trade regime and weak investment climate.” T...

My Say: Bad politics and bad economics

News coverage of the prime minister’s recent visit to Indonesia highlighted that the two countries had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the protection of migrant workers. Even if the news was not an accurate reflection of the scope of discussions, it is obvious that it was deemed to ...

My Say: Need for a trade boost, and reversal of the insular mindset

Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and following the repercussions since, the International Monetary Fund expected global growth to moderate from 5.9% in 2021 to 4.4% in 2022. This was despite the overall improvement in the state of the Covid-19 pandemic. Expected tightening of monetary polic...

My Say: Disruptions, normalisation and real reckonings

We have seen examples of democracies in many places in the world where elections have resulted in weak, if not altogether dysfunctional, governments. These dysfunctionalities, which result in ineffective governments, have brought about the emergence of far right governments — parties that exploit...

my Say: Empty intersections and parochial leadership

The Perak government has agreed to supply water to Penang through the Kerian Integrated Green Industrial Park to Seberang Perai.

Perak has agreed to supply water to Penang, says Anwar

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged all implementing agencies, particularly ministries, to prioritise the training of young people on artificial intelligence (AI) so that the country does not fall behind in this field.

PM wants AI, TVET-related training ramped up for country’s youth

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim described foreign media reports regarding fuel subsidy cuts as unethical, and said that no final decision had been made at the Cabinet level regarding the issue.

Anwar lambasts foreign media over reports on fuel subsidy cut

The UK’s Labour Party is set to impose value-added tax (VAT) on boarding fees as well as private education in the country if it wins the next election, Financial Times (FT) reported, citing party insiders.

UK’s Labour to impose VAT on boarding fees, private education — FT

Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor apologised to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Cabinet ministers who attended the state-level Madani Aidilfitri celebration on Saturday night.

Kedah MB apologises to Anwar, Cabinet over ‘inappropriate remarks’

The federal government has agreed in principle to proposals to convert agricultural land within the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) area for industrial and commercial development.

Anwar says nod given to conversion of Mada land for industrial, commercial development 

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged sharp moves in the value of the yen this week, even as she declined to say whether Japan had intervened to support the currency.

Yellen counsels caution on currency intervention after yen surge

Labour wins in the UK’s two biggest cities completed a string of local election successes by opposition leader Keir Starmer that showed his party firmly on course for victory at a general election later this year.

Labour mayor wins cap triumphant election run for Starmer

Paytm appointed new business executives as the troubled fintech firm’s chief operating officer resigned.

Paytm appoints new executives as COO resigns

Warren Buffett said he expects the US government to increase taxes to tackle widening fiscal deficits rather than reduce spending.

Warren Buffett says taxes may rise to offset widening US deficits

China's Ping An Insurance Group Co, the biggest Asian investor in HSBC did not support reappointing chief executive Noel Quinn as a director to the banks board at the its shareholder meeting, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday, as the investor voted against such a move.

Ping An votes against reappointment of HSBC CEO as director — Reuters

Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor apologised to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Cabinet ministers who attended the state-level Madani Aidilfitri celebration on Saturday night.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim described foreign media reports regarding fuel subsidy cuts as unethical, and said that no final decision had been made at the Cabinet level regarding the issue.

Labour wins in the UK’s two biggest cities completed a string of local election successes by opposition leader Keir Starmer that showed his party firmly on course for victory at a general election later this year.

Warren Buffett said he expects the US government to increase taxes to tackle widening fiscal deficits rather than reduce spending.

In the May 6 issues of City &amp; Country, the cover story features Eastern &amp; Oriental Bhd’s (E&amp;O) Andaman Island in Penang. The reclaimed island project is taking shape and will come in two phases. Phase one covers 253 acres, while phase two will cover 507 acres. Reclamation work for phase one started in 2015 and was completed in December 2019. Work on phase two is ongoing, with the entire reclamation exercise set to be completed by December 2028.

Developing community living sustainably