KUALA LUMPUR: Swimming lessons, “boot camps” for housewives to learn healthy cooking and reintroducing the Rakan Muda programme are among initiatives the Youth and Sports Ministry is working on to keep Malaysians healthier and safer, said its minister Hannah Yeoh. Speaking at a dialogue session with the media on Tuesday, she said the swimming lessons would be a preventive measure to reduce the incidence of drowning involving children and adolescents, especially during the school holidays. theSun yesterday ran a report quoting Fire and Rescue superintendent Mohd Fahmi Husin from the department’s Operations Management Centre, who said 56 children under 12 years old died during the school holidays from Jan 1 last year to Tuesday, and that most cases were due to neglect and lack of adult supervision. Yeoh said: “Over 500 youths drown yearly based on records provided to my ministry. It was discovered that most of the youths died during the school holidays either in swimming pools or while swimming in rivers.” She said to ensure the swimming lessons are successful, the ministry wants parents to commit their children to a minimum of 12 lessons. “This will allow them to learn the very basics of swimming. Lessons will be held at public pools owned by the government and coaches will be paid by the ministry.” Yeoh also said the boot camps for housewives will be targeted at those living in Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) flats. “They will be taught healthy cooking and healthy living lifestyles. These boot camps will be held during weekends,” she said, adding that her ministry will identify locations at PPR flats where the sessions could be held. She said her ministry tried to hold a boot camp at a PPR flat field in Selangor last week, but had to move to a different location because the field was filled with parked cars. “This boot camp is part of the ministry’s efforts to introduce grassroots programmes to ensure those living in PPR flats have equal access to knowledge. We are also planning to reintroduce the Rakan Muda programme for youths as there has been huge interest in it being revived. We will be working with the Education Ministry on this.” On matters involving sports associations and athletes, Yeoh said the ministry is undergoing a digital transformation to ensure greater transparency and a closer working relationship with sports associations. “Sports associations have complained that they are unaware of how decisions are made or money is spent by the ministry. By digitalising information on such matters, all sports associations can find out how the ministry spends money and its decisionmaking process.” Yeoh said digitalisation will also make it easier for sports associations to apply for grants to carry out their activities. She said as Budget 2023 was tabled this month, it will only get parliamentary approval in April. “This means we will only have a few months to disperse the funds before the next budget is introduced.” Yeoh said she has met the bulk of sports associations in the Klang Valley to discuss their problems and issues. On associations based outside Selangor, she said she has only met representatives from four states and will meet the rest as soon as possible. “I have also met the National Sports Council (NSC) to discuss issues faced by athletes, such oSwimming lessons to be given as 500 youths drown yearly during school holidays, says minister █ BYRAJVINDER SINGH [emailprotected] TELLING IT AS IT IS ON THURSDAY MARCH 16, 2023 No. 8229 PP 2644/12/2012 (031195) www.thesundaily.my JUMBO ATTRACTION ... Two farmers work in a padi field in Sekinchan against the backdrop of a decommissioned commercial aircraft parked in the area as an addded attraction to draw visitors to Selangor’s rice-bowl district. – WAN MIRZA ISKANDAR/THESUN Preventing deaths as ensuring their allowances are paid on time. I have discussed the issue of the NSC holding talks with all stakeholders to resolve problems faced by athletes and others without the need for the ministry or minister to be involved. This will help to sort out the problems faster.” INSIDE Govt hopeful of first-last-mile solution for public transport ‘Malaysia will be spared economic turmoil this year’ 2 page 3 page
2 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS ‘Country will be spared economic turmoil this year’ KUALA LUMPUR: The Finance Ministry has stressed that Malaysia will not experience economic turmoil this year although the country is faced with global economic uncertainties. Deputy Finance Minister II Steven Sim Chee Keong said the technical definition of an economic recession is when a country experiences two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. “This year, the government expects the country’s economy to expand around 4.5%. This is in line with the projection by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which have set Malaysia’s economic growth this year at 4.4% and 4% respectively. “The government will continue to strengthen economic growth and oGovt expects economy to expand around 4.5%, in line with IMF, World Bank projections of 4.4% and 4% respectively: Deputy minister equitable development for the people as well as make Malaysia a more attractive investment destination by facilitating investment processes, creating more high innovative start-up companies and generating more job opportunities with fair incomes,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday. Sim was replying to a question from Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli (PNDungun), on the measures taken by the government to address issues concerning the economic downturn in 2023 to minimise the impact on Malaysians. He added that to tackle the effects of rising prices of basic necessities, the unity government is continuing to implement subsidies and cash aid such as Rahmah Cash Contribution and various incentives with a total allocation of RM64 billion. Sim said the government has also implemented the Menu Rahmah and Jualan Rahmah programmes under the Rahmah umbrella initiative, besides continuing the setting of price ceiling as well as standardising prices of specific basic necessities, Bernama reported. He also said to rebuild the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) during the post-pandemic period, the government has provided incentive funds, tax deduction, loans and financing guarantees with an allocation of over RM40 billion. He added that through the empowerment of the MSME sector directly, the country could develop its economy and indirectly create high-income jobs that are favourable to the people. He said besides subsidy allocations, the government has also started to implement targeted subsidy of electricity bills for 10% of the top consumers. Over 18,000 teachers’ quarters unoccupied KUALA LUMPUR: Of the total 47,947 teachers’ quarters developed by the Education Ministry, 18,740 units are unoccupied, said Deputy Minister Lim Hui Ting. Lim said the ministry has appointed real estate consultants to carry out a study, including submitting their proposed solutions to optimise the use of the unoccupied units nationwide. She said the study is expected to be completed by the end of next month. “We will wait for the report before planning on the next course of action in optimising the use of the vacant units,” she said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday. Lim was replying to a question from Young Syefura Othman (PHBentong), on the number of units of teachers’ quarters and the ministry’s plan to repair and maintain dilapidated housing units. He said the ministry is also examining the proposal that distribution of Bantuan Awal Persekolahan funds be credited directly into students’ accounts following the issue of negligence and theft involving the funds. Lim said the move is to make it easier for parents as they would no longer be required to come to school to collect the money. – Bernama Update personal details, cash aid recipients told KOTA BHARU: The Finance Ministry has called on all existing recipients of Rahmah Cash Aid to update their data, and eligible individuals to submit their applications before March 31. Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said this is to enable the disbursem*nt of Phase 2 of the cash aid to be done by midRamadan or early April before Aidilfitri. “The reason we want the update from existing recipients is that the data has not been updated for the past three years. They may have been single before but are probably married now. “If they are still single with a monthly income of RM2,500 and below, they’ll get RM350, but for Ahmad visiting a mobile Rahmah Cash Aid service centre in Kota Bharu yesterday. – BERNAMAPIC Govt to enlist Orang Asli in environmental protection efforts KUALA LUMPUR: The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry will get the Orang Asli community to be more actively involved in efforts to ensure environmental sustainability, said its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad. He said the community is capable of being the frontline in preserving and conserving the flora and fauna ecosystems because they have knowledge and skills in using resources that have a minimal impact on the environment. He cited Tiger Protection Society of Malaysia’s (Rimau) initiative with the Orang Asli community in Royal Belum State Park, Perak. Nik Nazmi said efforts to protect the Malayan Tiger would be difficult if there is no involvement from the Orang Asli. “I see that even at Royal Belum, the NGO not only conducts educational programmes but also organises cultural programmes with the Orang Asli community to ensure that they play a role as frontliners. “Although the Orang Asli Development Department comes under the Rural and Regional Development Ministry, we will work together to get the Orang Asli community to participate more actively in preserving the environment,” he said after officiating at a tree planting programme organised by AEON BIG in Gombak yesterday. Also present were Selangor and Federal Territories Orang Asli Development Department director Mohamad Anis Othman and AEON BIG managing director Sheikh Farouk Sheikh Mohamed. Nik Nazmi said 300 fruit and forest trees would be planted by the department in collaboration with AEON BIG involving a total of 70 volunteers, with the support of several agencies such as Jungle School Gombak. “The government would also like to thank AEON BIG for playing an active role as a responsible corporate citizen. In fact, they are also participating in the Payung Rahmah programme.” At the event, AEON BIG also donated 10 Bakul Rahmah food baskets, each containing daily necessities worth RM50 for the Orang Asli families involved. – Bernama married individuals, there are several categories for them,” he said after making an official visit to the Kelantan chapter of the Inland Revenue Board yesterday. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he wanted the disbursem*nt of the Rahmah Cash Aid Phase 2 to be done by mid-Ramadan or early April before Aidilfitri. Ahmad said the cash aid distribution is made in phases, with Phase 1 completed on Jan 14, involving an aid of RM1.67 million. He said the disbursem*nt of Phase 3 of the aid is expected in July and Phase 4 in November. “In Kelantan, a total of 806,024 individuals have applied for the aid, 587,160 of whom were approved involving a sum of about RM520 million.” He said this year’s cash aid is the largest allocation in its history, namely RM8 billion for nine million recipients. “The government will also give additional aid of RM600 to hardcore poor families, using data from eKasih, the state federal office or the implementation coordination unit. “The additional aid will be given as food baskets and food supply vouchers worth RM100 for six months.” – Bernama Anwar: Reject Islamophobia KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday said Islamophobia and all acts of hatred and violence against individuals based on religion or belief must be rejected. He said to achieve this, Malaysia is ready to cooperate constructively and collectively with the world community. “Malaysia whole-heartedly joins the world community in commemorating the International Day to Combat Islamophobia on March 15. “This is not a day to be celebrated, but a day to enhance awareness of the world community and the need for action to combat Islamophobia,” he said in a post on his Facebook page. Anwar said as Muslims around the world will be welcoming the month of Ramadan soon, he called on the people to practise moderation in line with the concept of Malaysia Madani and to reject the extremist ideology in celebrating the holy month. – Bernama M’sia, UK discuss strategic cooperation PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia and the United Kingdom are examining ways to strengthen bilateral ties while looking into the potential for strategic cooperation in a number of areas, including security, trade and investment, green technology and the digital economy. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, who is currently on a working visit to the UK, said this matter was discussed during his meeting with UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs secretary James Cleverly. “We also discussed regional and international issues involving mutual interests,” he said in a statement yesterday. During the meeting, he also highlighted the issue of palm oil, which is one of the country’s important exports, and also the safety and security of the Indo-Pacific region. – Bernama Technical skills for Selangor orphans SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government plans to send orphans in shelter homes in the state to the Selangor Technical Skills Development Centre (STDC) when they reach the age of 18. State Youth, Sports and Human Capital Development Committee chairman Mohd Khairuddin Othman said this would allow the group to have the necessary skills to help them enter the world of work. “Most of these children cannot work after they reach 18 years due to family stigma and lack of skills,” he said at the Selangor state assembly sitting, in reply to a question from Datuk Mohd Shamsudin Lias (BN-Sungai Burong). – Bernama
3 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 KUALA LUMPUR: The Land Public Transport Agency (LPTA) hopes that more private transport providers will work together to help deal with the first-and-last-mile system issues in order to encourage the public to use public transport more optimally and comprehensively. This is in line with the full operation of the MRT Putrajaya Line from Kwasa Damansara to Putrajaya, which will begin today at 3pm after the launch by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. LPTA director-general Datuk Azlan Shah Al Bakri said to strengthen the country’s public transport system, the agency had introduced the bus-on-demand (BoD) service through a proof of concept (PoC) last year. According to him, one of the objectives was to study the effectiveness of the service, assess the impact on existing services, such as stage buses and taxis, and collect information on the level of use of BoD services among the public, reported Bernama. “The BoD service is a booking of bus services through an app that is carried out without a fixed schedule and route, and operates in LPTA-approved zones only. “It uses small-sized vehicles, such as minibuses, vans and operates between residential houses and public transport stations,” he said. Azlan Shah said several private companies have shown interest in running BoD services but so far only two have been approved by LPTA. “The two companies are Asia Mobility Technologies Sdn Bhd and Badan Bas Coach Sdn Bhd, which are still in discussions with Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to work together to solve the problem in Puchong and Subang Jaya.” He added that the agency is ready to add this service at other stations in all existing route networks if it is successful. Azlan Shah said the collaboration is important to support the more than 1,000 stage bus services in the Klang Valley as well as feeder bus services to rail and bus stations, in addition to e-hailing and taxi options. “For the opening of MRT2, approximately 107 more feeder buses will be provided, which are expected to complement the public transport network.” The MRT Putrajaya Line Phase One alignment from Kwasa Damansara to Kampung Batu began services on June 16, 2022. The MRT Putrajaya Line involves a 57.7km route from Kwasa Damansara in Sungai Buloh to Putrajaya Sentral, with 36 stations, comprising 27 elevated stations and nine underground stations, as well as 49 train sets, with a total construction cost of RM30.53 billion. Sighting of new moon for Ramadan on March 22 KUALA LUMPUR: The sighting of the new moon for the commencement of Ramadan for Muslims in Malaysia is on March 22. The Office of the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal said in a statement yesterday the Conference of Rulers had agreed that the date for the start of fasting be based on the rukyah (sighting of the new moon) and hisab (calculation). It said the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal will announce the date over radio and television on that night. The respective committees will attempt to sight the new moon at 29 locations nationwide. They are Pontian Kecil, Johor; Kompleks Falak Al-Khawarizmi Kampung Balik Batu, Tanjung Bidara, Malacca; Kompleks Baitul Hilal Telok Kemang, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan; Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor; Bukit Jugra, Banting, Kuala Langat and Selangor observatory, Sabak Bernam in Selangor. The sighting will also be carried out at Pantai Pasir Panjang, Mukim Pengkalan Bharu, Manjong, Perak; Pusat Falak Sheikh Tahir, Pantai Aceh, Penang; Kampung Pulau Sayak, Kuala Muda; Pemandangan Indah, Pulau Langkawi and Menara Alor Setar in Kedah. The other locations are Bukit Besar, Kuala Terengganu; Bukit Geliga, Kemaman; Pulau Perhentian, Besut and Kusza observatory, Mukim Merang, Setiu, Terengganu; Bukit Peraksi, Pasir Puteh; Bukit Kampung Tembeling, Mukim Manjur, Olak Jeram district, Kuala Krai and Menara Bangunan SEDC, Kota Bharu, Kelantan; Pusat Falak Miri; Teluk Bandung, Kuching and Tanjung Batu, Bintulu in Sarawak; Al-Biruni observatory, Tanjung Dumpil, Putatan, Sabah; Bukit Tanjong Batu, Nenasi; Gunung Berinchang, Cameron Highlands and Bukit Pelindong, Kuantan in Pahang. The 13th floor of Menara Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan International Campus; Kuala Lumpur Tower; Putrajaya International Convention Centre; and Menara Pandang, Masjid Al-Hussain Kuala Perlis in Perlis are the other locations. – Bernama Govt hopeful of cooperation for first-last-mile solution oPrivate transport providers, newly introduced services to play concerted role in encouraging use of public transport Law to penalise adults for neglect of elderly parents KUALA LUMPUR: The Senior Citizens Bill is expected to be tabled in Parliament next year to provide, among others, provisions for legal action and punishment for adult children who refuse to be responsible for their parents, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday. Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Aiman Athirah Sabu said the aim for the enactment of the law is to protect senior citizens in Malaysia, and also as preparation for the country to become an ageing nation by 2030. She said her ministry has conducted a study on the content, approach and scope of the law. “The ministry will also look into the appropriateness of the punishments for adult children who refuse to be responsible for their parents. This is to enhance public awareness on the importance of taking care of the elderly,” Aiman Athirah said in reply to Mohd Sany Hamzan (PH-Hulu Langat) during question time. Mohd Sany wanted to know if the government is planning to introduce a law that will compel salary deductions for adult children who send their parents to elderly homes or care centres. She explained that the Bill will also provide provisions to protect the rights of senior citizens, to empower the elderly community and to create a strong support group for them and their caretakers. She added that the ministry will also implement various initiatives throughout the country to ensure their well-being, such as establishing Rumah Seri Kenangan and Rumah Ehsan nursing homes for those in need under the purview of the Social Welfare Department. – Bernama No lessons on first week of new academic year PUTRAJAYA: There will be no lessons in the first week of the new academic year 2023/2024 beginning March 19 and 20. Education Ministry director-general Datuk Pkharuddin Ghazali said the first week will be filled with sessions instilling physical, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual values. “The focus of the first day of school before was on academics but this year, the ministry will implement fun education and simple project-based learning,” he said in conjunction with the opening of the 2023/2024 school session yesterday. The new academic year will start on March 19 to March 9, 2024 for Group A states, and March 20 to March 10, 2024 for Group B states. Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu are in Group A while Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya are in Group B. “In the past, the focus on the first day was to dive straight into teaching, but this time we are asking schools to strengthen the relationship between teachers, students, parents and the community,” he added. – Bernama More locations for fasting month bazaars in Malacca MALACCA: The Alor Gajah Municipal Council is increasing the number of locations for Ramadan and Aidilfitri bazaars this year. Its president Saifuddin Abdul Karim said so far the council has approved 13 Ramadan bazaars, of which seven are in Alor Gajah and six in Masjid Tanah, compared with six last year. “As for Aidilfitri bazaars, the number has been increased to three compared with only two last year. The bazaars are located at Pulau Sebang and Masjid Tanah,” he told reporters at a media event here on Tuesday night. Saifuddin added that the council is also planning to set up additional Aidilfitri bazaars to accommodate 40 traders at Dataran Alor Gajah. He also reminded traders against arbitrarily raising the prices of goods, especially food, and to always maintain cleanliness of the premises and in the preparation of food. “We have already held a briefing and we hope traders will comply with the regulations, including the operating hours, which is from 3pm to 8pm for Ramadan bazaars, and 6pm to 1am for Aidilfitri bazaars.” – Bernama KIDDY CRAFT ... Children displaying their creative handiwork at a kindergarten in Putrajaya during the last week of school holidays recently. – WAN MIRZA ISKANDAR/THESUN
4 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS /thesundaily FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK SCAN ME Malacca appeals for more haemodialysis centres MALACCA: The state government has appealed to the Health Ministry to set up more haemodialysis centres to cater to the rising number of kidney patients, the state assembly was told yesterday. State Health and Anti-Drug Committee chairman Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh said Malacca currently has four Health Ministry haemodialysis centres, at the Malacca, Alor Gajah and Jasin hospitals and at the Cheng Health Clinic, which have 62 machines between them that are operating at a maximum capacity to treat 282 patients. oAdditional facilities needed considering rising number of patients, state assembly told “I know when it comes to dialysis, many (patients) are affected when they are unable to cover the cost of treatment although at the state level, we have help from the Malacca Islamic Religious Council, Social Security Organisation and Public Service Department. “But for patients with no source of income and those in the asnaf category, the poor who receive tithes, we will admit them to Health Ministry haemodialysis facilities in government hospitals and clinics,” he said in response to a supplementary question from Datuk Lim Ban Hong (BN-Klebang), who wanted to know about efforts taken by the state to ensure kidney patients have access to dialysis services, given the rising patient numbers. Muhamad Akmal said in addition to the Health Ministry facilities, the Toh Puan Zurina Foundation Haemodialysis Centre also offers free dialysis treatment to the needy, Bernama reported. He said kidney patients could also get treatment at 32 private haemodialysis centres in the state, which are licensed and have a total of 449 machines between them capable of treating 1,513 patients. “We will also work with the Malacca Islamic Religious Council to open one or two more dialysis centres in the next three to four years to meet the needs of kidney patients in the state.” Earlier, in response to a question from Leng Chau Yen (DAP-Bandar Hilir) regarding the long-term goal for deployment of automatic external defibrillators (AED), he said the state aims to have at least 500 AED in public areas in the next five years. He said the state has already placed 25 AED at 19 locations but this number was not sufficient as Malacca is a tourist hub and AED are a necessity in public areas to render first-aid to heart attack victims. “The additional AED (are expensive) and we need the cooperation of all parties involved to install the devices.” Ministry to unveil Rahmah car loan initiative KUALA LUMPUR: The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry plans to introduce loan facilities to finance the purchase of vehicles and insurance to help the B40 group under the “Payung Rahmah” initiative. Its minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub said he would be holding several engagement sessions with banking institutions and insurance companies to fine-tune the initiative, Bernama reported. “We will come up with a Rahmah insurance (policy) that can be offered to people who cannot afford a new car. The scheme will offer protection for second-hand cars,” he said after officiating at a campaign at Mydin Hypermarket in Subang Jaya yesterday. He said International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz was supportive of the move and was willing to cooperate to make it a success. Japanese award for association president KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Homestay Association president Datuk Sahariman Hamdan received a commendation from the Japanese Foreign Minister on Monday for his significant contributions to fostering homestays in Malaysia for over 25 years. In his acceptance speech at the ceremony, Sahariman expressed hope he would continue to inspire others as a result of the recognition to make an effort to maintain the growth of bilateral relations through a variety of initiatives, in addition to tourism. “I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to the government of Japan for the award and to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry as well as Tourism Malaysia for their support towards the growth of the tourism industry.” Sahariman, who has served as Malaysia Homestay Association president since 1995, actively participated in tourism seminars in Japan and contributed to strengthening bilateral tourism cooperation by promoting programmes to experience Malaysian village life and eco-tourism. As president of the Alumni of Friendship Programme for the 21st Century Asean-Japan, he has also organised several Japan-Malaysia cultural events to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Look East Policy as well as conducted post-flood relief missions in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency. At the ceremony, Japan ambassador to Malaysia Takahashi Katsuhiko expressed sincere congratulations to Sahariman and hoped that friendly relations between Japan and Malaysia would continue and deepen in the future. – Bernama
5 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 Fire hazard jitters over wood debris at apartment block PETALING JAYA: A resident of Sri Tanjung Apartments in Bandar Puchong Jaya, Selangor has expressed concern over wood debris and a bottle of oil that was left behind after the apartment management felled several trees on March 10. Vincent S. Pandian, 50, said the debris posed a fire hazard. “In an earlier incident on March 1, some children had set off firecrackers and accidentally started a fire at a store near Block L. “It took around five days to █ BYVEISHNAWI NEHRU [emailprotected] Govt to organise overseas tour to counter Sulu group claims KOTA BAHRU: The government will organise a series of tours in several countries, led by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, to explain an issue relating to the Sulu group’s claims. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the purpose of the tour was to explain that the Sulu group is a terrorist group and to avoid a bad perception of Malaysia. “Explanation must be given about the Sulu group’s claims because the world community does not know the truth and believe that they are just a separatist group. “We must set the record straight as the Sulu group is not just categorised as smugglers or intruders, but also terrorists,” he said after attending a meet-andgreet event with Kelantan Kemas personnel yesterday. Also present were Rural and Regional Development Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Ramlan Harun and Kemas director-general Ahmad Kamal Idris Mohd Nawawi. On Tuesday, the special secretariat on Sulu claims said Malaysia is scrutinising all existing measures to counter the group’s claims in a bid to preserve national sovereignty. It said the government is also making further checks to ascertain if any of the group’s eight claimants have an affiliation, family ties or heirs to the Royal Sulu Forces terrorist group that has been punished by a court in the intrusion case of Lahad Datu in Sabah. It also said the government insisted that the claimant’s rights and claims were invalid, void and terminated through the exercise of the right to self-determination by the people of Sabah through the consultation of the Cobbold Commission in 1962 and the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. – Bernama RM50,000 illegally stored subsidised diesel seized BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Penang branch of the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry crippled a syndicate suspected of illegal trading of subsidised diesel and seized a tanker with 22,840 litres of fuel worth almost RM50,000 in a raid yesterday. State enforcement chief A. Morgan, said the Ops Tapis raid on an unlicenced store in Permatang Pauh at 4pm uncovered the activities of the syndicate, which had been operating for the past month. “Acting on information from intelligence carried out since last week, we detected a lorry filling up diesel at several gas stations around the state before delivering them to the store. oTanker driver arrested in raid on syndicate in Penang after week-long surveillance by Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry JOHOR BAHRU: The flood situation in Johor is showing signs of recovery as the number of evacuees in the state has dropped to 36,086 as of 8am yesterday from 37,503 on Tuesday night. In a statement, the State Disaster Management Committee revealed that 10,157 families were still seeking shelter at 116 relief centres, which are still operating in four flood-hit districts. “Batu Pahat recorded the highest number of evacuees with 35,849, followed by Muar with 111, Segamat with 102 and Tangkak with 24,” read the statement. Two rivers in Batu Pahat were still above the danger level, namely Bekok Dam in Sungai Bekok, which was at 19.24m and Sungai Senggarang in Senggarang at 3.58m. The weather was sunny in all 10 districts yesterday. – Bernama Company owner claims trial over threats to kill band members JOHOR BAHRU: An event management company owner pleaded not guilty at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to a charge of making death threats against members of the Indonesian rock band Radja last Saturday. C.S. Muremthiram, 37, was charged with criminal intimidation by threatening to kill band members Ian Kasela, 49, Seno Aji Wibowo, 43, and Mouldyanshah Mulyadi, 49. The accused is alleged to have committed the offence in a backstage room at the Larkin Arena Stadium at 11pm. The charge, under Section 506 of the Penal Code, provides for a penalty of seven years imprisonment or a fine, or both. DPP Sharifah Natasha Syed Ahmad urged the court to set bail at RM8,000 and for the accused not to have any contact with the band members and prosecution witnesses. Magistrate Hidayatul Syuhada Samsudin then set bail at RM4,000 after lawyer Amarpreet Singh pleaded for a lower amount on the grounds that the accused earned between RM3,000 and RM3,500 and had to support family members financially. – Bernama Ex-federal body GM held over graft case MALACCA: A former general manager of a federal statutory body has been remanded for six days from yesterday to facilitate investigations into a RM47,000 bribery case involving a project under the Prihatin Rakyat economic stimulus package two years ago. The remand order against the 41-year-old man was issued by Magistrate Nabilah Nizam following an application from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). The man was arrested after providing his statement at the MACC office at around 10pm on Tuesday. The case is being investigated under Section 17(A) of the MACC Act 2009, which provides a fine of RM10,000 or five times the value of the bribe, whichever is higher, and imprisonment of up to 20 years. – Bernama “Our enforcement team observed that the lorry was transferring diesel to a storage area, which had two tanks that could each hold up to 21,000 litres of diesel, although one was empty when we moved in,” he said. Morgan added that the raiding team arrested the lorry driver, who claimed to be making four to six trips every day to buy subsidised diesel, which added up to 6,000 litres, and were filled into the storage tanks. He said the syndicate would pool subsidised diesel for a period of three to four days until the tanks were full before reselling it to buyers for a profit of 30 sen per litre, or RM6,000 to RM7,000 per tank-load sold, Bernama reported. He said the syndicate rented the storage area for RM3,000 per month, which is far from the main road to avoid detection while the place was also tightly guarded and the main entrance could only be accessed by activating a remote control device. “The modus operandi of the syndicate is very cunning because the area appears to be a storage for fertiliser to foil detection. But in reality, the syndicate is believed to reap in a profit of more than RM30,000 a month with their illegal trading activities.” He said in addition to the subsidised diesel, the ministry also seized a lorry, tanks, a motor pump and a mobile phone, all of which amounting to RM95,406 for further investigation under the Supply Control Act 1961. clean up the debris after the incident. “So, I have every reason to be concerned over the debris that has been left. The debris has not been cleared for several days and it is unsightly. While the bottle of oil is not flammable, it too should have been removed,” he said. Vincent claimed that the apartment management did not provide any notice that trees would be felled. “As residents, we have a right to know this,” he said, adding that according to the Strata Management Act 2013, the minutes of management meetings should be posted on the building’s notice boards within 21 days for the attention of the owners and be displayed until it is replaced by a copy of the minutes of a subsequent meeting. “However, for four months now, the minutes of meetings have not been posted on our notice boards,” he said. When contacted, the apartment’s building executive Moses Velauthan said the management only had three workers, which is why it has taken some time to clear the debris. “While we strive to be as efficient as possible, this is a residential area. Sometimes, we face some difficulty in cleaning up the debris as soon as it occurs,” Moses said, adding that the trees were felled as it was blocking the main lobby of the apartment block. A Subang Jaya City Council spokesman said residents who are unhappy with any action taken by their management committees can complain about it. “Complaints can be lodged through our website at mbsj.gov.my/ms/saluran-aduan or mbsj.gov.my/ms. “We will certainly look into all complaints,” he said. Number of flood evacuees drops to 36,000 in Johor An Irrigation and Drainage Department mobile pump being used to drain stagnant floodwaters at Kampung Parit Aton in Batu Pahat, Johor yesterday. – BERNAMAPIC
6 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS Russian jet caused US drone crash: Pentagon oWashington trying to prevent aircraft from getting into ‘wrong hands’ PARIS: A Russian fighter jet on Tuesday dumped fuel on an American drone over the Black Sea and then collided with it, causing the drone to crash, the US military said, slamming the manoeuvre as “reckless”. US European Command said two Russian Su-27 fighters intercepted the unmanned MQ-9 Reaper over international waters and one clipped its propeller. “Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.” Moscow denied causing the crash of the drone, which the Pentagon said was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission. “As a result of a sharp manoeuvre, the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle entered an uncontrolled flight with loss of altitude and collided with the surface of the water,” the Russian Defence Ministry said, adding that the two Russian jets had no contact Rights group says thousands of Afghans in detention in UAE Cyclone toll passes 200 in Malawi, Mozambique BLANTYRE: The death toll from Cyclone Freddy in Malawi and Mozambique passed 200 on Tuesday after the record-breaking storm triggered floods and landslides in its second strike on Africa in less than three weeks. Rescue workers warned that more victims were likely as they scoured destroyed neighbourhoods for survivors even as hopes dwindled. The fierce storm delivered its second punch to southeastern Africa starting at the weekend, its second landfall since late last month after brewing off Australia and traversing the Indian Ocean. Malawi’s government said at least 190 people were killed with 584 injured and 37 missing, while authorities in neighbouring Mozambique reported 20 deaths and 24 injured. “The situation is very dire,” said emergency project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Malawi Guilherme Botelho. “There are many casualties, either wounded, missing or dead, and the numbers will only increase in the coming days.” Many people perished in mudslides that washed away homes in the country’s commercial capital Blantyre. Across the country, nearly 59,000 people have been affected and more than 19,000 displaced, with many now sheltering in schools and churches. In Chilobwe, a township outside Blantyre, stunned survivors surveyed flattened houses and other structures as rain continued to fall. John Witman, in his 80s, stood in front of what had been his son-in-law’s home. It was now just rocks and gushing water, the house having been swept away. “I wish that we could find him and find closure,” Witman said. In nearby Chimwankhunda, Steve Panganani Matera pointed to a mound of mud. “There were plenty of houses, but they are all gone. “There are plenty of bodies down B R I E F S there in the mud.” – AFP FUGITIVE EX-MINISTER FLEES TO VENEZUELA QUITO: A former Ecuadoran Cabinet minister convicted of corruption has fled to Venezuela after spending more than two years holed up in the Argentine embassy here, officials said on Tuesday. Maria de los Angeles Duarte was sentenced to eight years for bribery but had been living in the Argentine embassy since August 2020. Argentina had offered her asylum, but Ecuador refused to grant Duarte free passage out of the country. Argentina Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said Duarte had escaped from the diplomatic mission “without the knowledge of staff” there. – AFP ARGENTINA FORESTS BURN AMID HEATWAVE BUENOS AIRES: Fires in heat wave and drought-stricken Argentina have devoured some 6,000ha of forests in the northern Corrientes province in just days, officials reported on Tuesday. Three fires continued to threaten while two others were burning but under control, according to the emergency command centre of Corrientes. No injuries have been reported and the fires have not spread to populated areas. Since the start of the year, with the South American country facing heat wave after heat wave, fires have destroyed more than 100,000ha in Corrientes. – AFP Mud and debris litter a neighbourhood in Blantyre in the aftermath of floods caused by the cyclone. – AFPPIC with the US aircraft and did not use their weapons. The US State Department said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest. White House national security spokesman John Kirby later said “obviously, we refute the Russians’ denial” and added that the US is trying to prevent the fallen drone from getting into the wrong hands. “Without getting into too much detail, what I can say is that we’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone, that particular aircraft. “We obviously don’t want to see anybody getting their hands on it beyond us,” he told CNN. Russian intercepts over the Black Sea are common, Kirby told journalists in Washington, but this one “is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was, indeed reckless that it was”. Nato diplomats confirmed the incident, but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation. A Western military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that diplomatic channels between Russia and the US could help limit any fall-out. “To my mind, diplomatic channels will mitigate this.” The United States uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has long operated over the Black Sea keeping an eye on Russian naval forces. “Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” said US Air Force General James Hecker. Pentagon spokesman Brig-Gen Pat Ryder said the drone was “unflyable and uncontrollable so we brought it down”, adding that the collision also likely damaged the Russian aircraft. – AFP WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities yesterday of arbitrarily detaining for more than 15 months as many as 2,700 Afghan evacuees who have not qualified for resettlement elsewhere. Many of the Afghans in Emirates Humanitarian City are suffering from depression and other psychological ailments, have no access to legal counsel, and have inadequate educational services for their children, a HRW report said. “Living conditions have also deteriorated significantly, with detainees describing overcrowding, decay of infrastructure and insect infestations,” the report said of the facility in Abu Dhabi. A UAE official said the Emirates continues to work with the US and other international partners to resettle remaining evacuees in a timely manner. The official did not comment on the accusation that the Afghans were being detained. The UAE official said the country is committed to ensuring Afghan evacuees live in safety, security and dignity, and said evacuees have received high-quality housing, sanitation, health, counselling, education and food services. The US State Department office that handles the relocation of Afghans told the rights group in a letter that the American commitment to resettling eligible Afghans – including those in Emirates Humanitarian City – is an “enduring one”, the report said. Private evacuation groups and the Emirati military flew thousands of Afghans into the UAE during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended years of war. The evacuees were housed in Emirates Humanitarian City and Tasameem Workers City – apartment complexes converted into refugee housing – and many eventually were cleared for resettlement in the US, Canada and other countries. However, between 2,500 and 2,700 Afghans did not qualify for resettlement elsewhere and as of January remained in what the HRW report called “arbitrary detention”. Sixteen Afghans interviewed late last year by HRW said they could not freely leave the site, with security guards or minders watching them closely on hospital visits and during a shopping mall visit. – Reuters Zebra shot dead after biting man WASHINGTON: A US man remained hospitalised on Tuesday after he was attacked and severely injured by his own aggressive zebra, which was shot dead by police. Initial reports from the sheriff’s office in Pickaway County in the US state of Ohio said the arm of Ronald Clifton, 72, was dismembered and that one officer rushed to apply a tourniquet as other police responders fended off the hoofed African animal. Police deputy Michael Oberley reported that as he arrived on the scene of Sunday’s incident, “a large male zebra charged my driver side door and was acting very hostile”. Clifton “appeared to have a haemorrhage on his right arm just below the elbow”, the officer said. While Oberley was attending to the victim, the zebra returned and was threatening the Clifton family and other policemen. Video footage from an officer’s body camera showed a man chasing the zebra with a stick. After that failed and another officer tried in vain to scare the animal away, the officer shot the zebra in the head. The exact injury to Clifton was unclear. While one deputy, Nathan Welch, wrote in his report that the victim’s arm had been “bit off by the zebra”, a police spokesman said officers believe the arm was broken. – AFP
7 NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 Pakistan police halt bid to arrest Imran ISLAMABAD: Pakistan police appeared yesterday to have given up an attempt to arrest former prime minister Imran Khan, ending a siege of his residence after violent clashes with hundreds of his supporters. AFP correspondents and witnesses near Imran’s home in the plush Zaman Park suburb of Lahore said police and paramilitary rangers had retreated after abandoning a series of roadblocks and checkpoints. “The police and rangers sent to harm Imran Khan were pushed back by the people,” his official Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party tweeted, along with video of supporters celebrating outside his house. “More people are coming to Zaman Park and will never let the evil intentions of this imported government succeed.” Police had fought pitched battles with Imran’s supporters throughout the night, firing fusillades of teargas and dodging rocks thrown by angry crowds. Groups of policemen were seen oFormer premier’s supporters celebrate after security forces abandon roadblocks, checkpoints running in disarray from the direction of the house yesterday afternoon. Imran was ousted from office by a no-confidence vote last year, and has been snarled in dozens of legal cases as he campaigns for early elections and a return to office. PTI social media accounts showed video of Imran greeting dozens of people inside his garden, and jubilant supporters celebrating outside. Police insist they have a warrant to arrest Imran following his failure to appear before an Islamabad court on graft charges, but the former premier and his lawyers say he has been granted bail on the charge. “The PTI leader does not have protective bail for this particular case,” said Islamabad police spokesman Muhammad Taqi Jawad. He said the arrest warrant would stand and denied police had retreated, adding: “Our actions will strictly adhere to the law, and we are committed to fulfilling our duty.” Earlier, Imran issued a video sitting in front of Pakistan and PTI flags at a desk decorated with spent teargas canisters. “They will teargas our people and do other such things, but you should know that they have no justification to do so.” Hundreds of PTI supporters had ringed Imran’s residence in the plush neighbourhood yesterday morning, holding off fresh attempts by police to storm the premises. Video circulating on social media – much distributed by official PTI accounts – showed several bloodied supporters and others struggling to cope with tear gas. A PTI official tweeted that there was “an urgent need” for first aid kits at the Zaman Park neighbourhood. “The way the police attack our people, there is no precedent for this,” Imran said. “Water cannons, teargas... they shelled inside the house (grounds) where there were servants and women.” Imran later tweeted pictures of bullet casings purportedly collected from the scene, but a Punjab government official denied live rounds were fired. – AFP Japan MP expelled for never going to work TOKYO: A YouTuber-turned-lawmaker became the first MP expelled by Japan’s Parliament in over 70 years yesterday, having not shown up to work once. Yoshikazu Higash*tani, known by his online moniker GaaSyy, had been ordered to apologise for his months-long absence earlier this month. But the lawmaker, one of two elected members of the fringe party Seijika Joshi 48, or “Politician Girls 48”, did not attend that parliamentary session either. Higash*tani, 51, had not set foot in the House of Councillors since his July 2022 election, despite a requirement for lawmakers to be present. The former businessman and celebrity gossip YouTuber has instead remained at his home in Dubai, claiming he may be arrested if he returns to Japan, where he reportedly faces questioning over alleged defamation. Japan’s Upper House decided on Tuesday to expel him from parliament. The move was made official yesterday – making him the first Japanese lawmaker to be expelled since 1951, local media reported. Higash*tani will be replaced by another member of his party. The single-issue Seijika Joshi 48 party campaigns for changes to Japan’s public broadcaster and was previously known as the NHK Party. – AFP B R I E F SYOON HAILS KEY ‘STEP FORWARD’ IN JAPAN TIES SEOUL: South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol yesterday hailed growing cooperation with Japan on issues from North Korea to semiconductors, saying it was part of a historic “new chapter” for the two countries. Yoon will travel to Tokyo today, his first visit since taking office last year, which follows his controversial move to try and finally settle a bitter historic dispute over Japanese World War II-era forced labour. Yoon said he was confident his new plan to compensate victims would work, telling media including AFP in a written interview that “the Japanese government will join us in opening a new chapter of Korea-Japan relations”. – AFP INDONESIA LANDSLIDE DEATH TOLL RISES TO 50 JAKARTA: The death toll from a landslide on a remote Indonesian island rose to 50 with four people still missing on the last day of the search, an official said yesterday. The landslide struck the island of Serasan on March 6, killing scores of residents in a village and burying houses under mud and debris. “Until yesterday, 50 people have been found dead, 49 of them have been identified while four others are still missing,” said local government spokesman Patli Muhamad. At least eight of the dead were children, according to local search and rescue teams scouring the island, located in the Natuna region between Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. Nearly 3,000 residents remain displaced, said local authorities. – AFP ‘Aussie subs deal could have deadly consequences’ CANBERRA: A former Australian prime minister yesterday rubbished the country’s landmark nuclear-powered submarines deal, saying it unnecessarily targeted China and could have “deadly consequences”. Australia announced on Monday it would buy up to five US submarines to bulk up Western muscle in the face of a rising China. With the help of US and Britain, Australia will also embark upon a 30-year plan to build its own fleet of nuclear-powered subs. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the deal was the country’s biggest-ever military upgrade, while US President Joe Biden said it would ensure the region remained “free and open”. But former prime minister Paul Keating has derided it as a “great misadventure”. “History will be the judge of this project in the end, but I want my name clearly recorded among those who say it is a great mistake,” he said in a statement. The former Labour premier – who led the country from 1991 to 1996 – said Australia had blindly followed the US and Britain, and that China posed no tangible military threat. “What would be the point of China wanting to occupy Sydney and Melbourne? Militarily? And could they ever do it. “The question is so dumb, it’s hardly worth an answer.” Keating said Australia was beginning a “dangerous and unnecessary journey” at the urging of the US, and that this could carry “deadly consequences” if the country became tangled in future conflicts. “Signing the country up to the foreign proclivities of another country – the US – with the gormless Brits lunging along behind is not a pretty sight.” Acquiring submarines powered by nuclear reactors puts Australia in an elite club and at the forefront of US-led efforts to push back against Chinese military expansion. While Australia has ruled out deploying atomic weapons, its submarine plan marks a significant new stage in the confrontation with China. – AFP Strike grips Sri Lanka as unions protest IMF bailout COLOMBO: Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s hospitals were crippled and transport disrupted yesterday as trade unions protested against the doubling of taxes to qualify for a crucial International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. Schools cancelled term tests and outpatient departments at hospitals closed due to the work stoppage that involved more than 40 trade unions. Fewer vehicles were seen on roads. The action came despite a ban on strikes imposed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe last month, and warnings that violators could lose their jobs. Trade union spokesman Haritha Aluthge said talks with the authorities ended inconclusively, forcing them to go ahead with yesterday’s work stoppage. Professionals have also joined the trade unions against the sharp increase in income taxes since January. “Anyone who violates the essential services order will face the full force of the law,” Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardana had warned ahead of the nationwide action that also hit ports, posts and utilities. Unions said the strike duration will depend on the government’s response to their demand to reverse the new taxes, which were among the measures taken to qualify for a US$2.9 billion rescue package from IMF. The executive board of the US-based lender of last resort is due to decide on Sri Lanka’s rescue package on March 20. Officials involved in the negotiations said the IMF was closely monitoring the protests and social unrest since the tax reforms. “Sri Lanka is one of the countries with the lowest tax revenues in the world. Unless state revenue is increased, there is no solution to the country’s economic crisis,” said a Sri Lankan official. Sri Lanka sought IMF help after defaulting on its US$46 billion (RM206 billion) foreign government debt last April. The country’s unprecedented economic crisis since late 2021 has caused severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines. – AFP Commuters travelling in an overcrowded train during a nationwide railway strike in Colombo yesterday. – AFPPIC
8 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 SPEAK UP behind schedule. The air-conditioning was good and the overhead rack functional, but there were no seat belts, and the bus was bumpier than usual from weakened shock absorbers. Just nine minutes later, the driver stopped at a Petronas station and resumed the journey after spending eight minutes refuelling. There was one “rest and relaxation” (R&R) stop along the way and the bus was there for 19 minutes from 2.58pm to 3.17pm. The bus reached Larkin Sentral at 5.41pm and without counting the stoppage time for refuelling, R&R and letting some passengers get off by the roadside, the travelling time took four hours. The driver was not speeding, as he was overtaken by many other express buses. Bus passengers arriving at Larkin Sentral and planning to use the e-hailing service would have to walk through the adjoining wet market and make the exit from there. I walked further down to a corner building housing KFC/Pizza Hut so that the ehailing car could go directly to my hotel. Two days later, I again used the e-hailing service to return to Larkin Sentral, which also operates the centralised booking system for all bus tickets but only nine counters were open, with five others closed. Again, I queued at the special counter for disabled people and senior citizens but to my dismay found many younger people, including foreign workers, were queuing in front of me. And just like at TBS, it was a long wait while many people using other counters came and left. Many trips to TBS are already fully booked and the earliest departure was 4.25pm. Again I chose a single seat on the left side of the bus, which was issued at 1.50pm. To kill time, I checked out all the shops and floors in the Larkin Sentral bus terminal and the multi-storey market. HALF a century ago, I travelled all over Peninsular Malaysia in tour buses working as a tourist guide. Over the past decade, I drove from Kuala Lumpur to Alor Setar, Ipoh, Lumut, Seremban, Malacca and Kuala Terengganu to conduct tourism courses. I have flown to Langkawi, Penang and Johor Bahru to conduct training, apart from Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Last weekend, I conducted training in Johor Bahru and decided to travel by express bus, hoping to enjoy the scenery along the North-South Expressway (NSE). I would have preferred the KTM service if there was no need to switch trains at Gemas. But I may consider taking the fast electric train to Butterworth when I next conduct training in Penang, as the view from the railway tracks can be quite different from that of expressways. For those travelling alone from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru, it does not make sense to drive, as charges from Sungei Besi to Skudai toll plazas is RM33.21, which is close to express bus fares. There is also wear and tear plus petrol, parking and repair costs for any collision damage. The main express bus terminal in Kuala Lumpur is called Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) and I reached there by taking a light train. At TBS, a centralised booking system is used for bus tickets and 59 counters were operating that day but all with long queues. Fortunately, there was a counter for senior citizens and I joined this queue. But I was puzzled upon spotting younger people waiting in front of me. The signage on the next counter showed “Airport Crew”, but non-airport workers and foreign tourists were also served. As the queue I was in moved very slowly, I witnessed many others using the airport crew counter coming and going while I waited as there were just a few people in front of me. Instead of choosing the next trip at noon, I opted for 12.15pm and a single seat on the left row. Before entering the departure hall, I checked at the gate and was told there are no toilets inside the waiting area. So I used the one outside to get ready for a long journey ahead. At one time, express buses used to have a toilet at the back of the vehicle, similar to aircraft. While flight delays are common and known by many, I now learned that it is normal for express buses to depart later than scheduled from TBS. This tidak apa or couldn’t care less attitude would continue as long as their departure times are not monitored by the relevant authorities. My express bus left TBS Kuala Lumpur for Larkin Sentral Johor Bahru exactly one hour COMMENT by YS Chan My first journey by express bus and also the last At 4pm, I entered the departure gate and the electronic board showed that the bus I booked had “checked in” and displayed the vehicle’s registration number. Just before the scheduled time of departure at 4.25pm, I checked with the operations counter and was told to wait. But at 4.25pm, the status for my bus departure was changed from “checked in” to “delayed”. Later, the 4.55pm scheduled departure by another bus from the same company showed “boarding”. So, I made another query at the operations counter and was told to go to Bay 14. There, I saw a bus from the same company but with a different registration number. Although there were continuous announcements of departures from 4.00pm, they stopped at around 4.30pm. I boarded the bus and noticed it was already half full and found the seat that I booked taken and the passenger explained to me it was free seating after two trips were combined into one. Luckily, the seat in front was empty but there was no overhead rack in the mid-section of this bus. At 5.02pm, the bus left Larkin Sentral and from 7.11pm, it was a slow crawl along the NorthSouth Expressway for no apparent reason, as there were no roadworks or accidents. At 7.35pm, the bus stopped for a 20-minute rest break at an R&R. Mercifully, it did not rain as passengers needing to relieve themselves would be drenched and those that needed to use one of the toilet cubicles would have to queue up. Later, the driver, wearing only slippers, drove off without counting the number of passengers. The bus could only travel slowly in heavy traffic all the way until the last exit of Seremban and then it was back to normal speed. Again, this bus driver was also not speeding as he was overtaken by other express buses. Finally reached TBS at 10.37pm and travelling time took an exhausting five hours and 15 minutes without including the 20- minute rest break. At TBS, I tried to book an e-hailing service and I could detect many e-hailing cars nearby but none of the drivers responded. After waiting for some time, I decided to take the train to Chan Sow Lin station and I had better luck there. Seated in the e-hailing car and on the way home, it was already 11.43pm. Different experiences When driving north along the NSE from Kuala Lumpur, there are many interesting sights such as buildings, houses and farms, and fantastic sceneries such as a high waterfall near Tapah. Before reaching Ipoh are wide open valleys between mountains and picturesque limestone hills. But there was nothing interesting to see driving south of the same expressway, especially along the entire stretch in Johor, as there were either oil palms, rubber trees or belukar (secondary jungle), and all the trees were close to the expressway and obstructing distant views. In the 1970s, tour buses would pass through Malacca, Muar and Batu Pahat on the way to Johor Bahru and Singapore. I remember the many rambutan trees by the roadside with branches heavy with red or yellow fruits hanging low. My tourists and I saw a patch of paradise on earth. My first express bus trip serves as a wakeup call not to continue romanticising about the road journeys in Peninsular Malaysia. For more than a decade, I have stopped driving to explore the network of roads that connects towns and villages as traffic congestion in bigger towns grew. My express bus journey last weekend was my first and also the last. In future, I would either drive outstation, fly over longer distances, or may take a jungle train to Kota Bharu when on holiday. I am also looking forward to the completion of East Coast Rail Line in 2027. YS Chan is the master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel and Tours Enhancement Course and an Asean Tourism Master Trainer. He is also a tourism and transport business consultant. Comments: [emailprotected] “There was nothing interesting to see driving south of the expressway, especially along the entire stretch in Johor, as there were either oil palms, rubber trees or belukar (secondary jungle), and all the trees were close to the expressway and obstructing distant views.
9 SPEAK UP theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 theSun ONWEDNESDAY | NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS theSun ON WEDNESDAY | NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS THE OBJECTIVES TO achieve greater unity among Malaysians TO maintain a democratic way of life TO create a just society in which the wealth of the nation shall be equitably shared TO ensure a liberal approach to her rich and diverse cultural traditions TO build a progressive society which shall be oriented to modern science and technology RUKUN NEGARA: THE PRINCIPLES BELIEF IN GOD LOYALTY TO KING AND COUNTRY THE SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION THE RULE OF LAW COURTESY AND MORALITY THE OBJECTIVES TO achieve greater unity among Malaysians TO maintain a democratic way of life TO create a just society in which the wealth of the nation shall be equitably shared TO ensure a liberal approach to her rich and diverse cultural traditions TO build a progressive society which shall be oriented to modern science and technology RUKUN NEGARA: THE PRINCIPLES BELIEF IN GOD LOYALTY TO KING AND COUNTRY THE SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION THE RULE OF LAW COURTESY AND MORALITY Women heroes on the front lines OVER the past few weeks, many people around the world joined me in celebrating my career firsts. From winning my first Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Independent Spirit Award to earning my first Oscar (for best actress in a leading role). While I am grateful for this unforgettable moment in my professional life, I want to redirect that global spotlight to an issue that is very personal to me and warrants the world’s attention. My life changed eight years ago when one moment shook my outlook on the world. It was April 25, 2015, and I was in Nepal with my partner Jean Todt visiting local organisations. Suddenly, I felt the earth begin to tremble violently. Outside the doors of the low-rise building I was in, a deadly earthquake ravaged the country. I’ve never felt the type of fear and panic that I felt that day when the ground beneath me shook so powerfully. I couldn’t stand on my feet. I had to crawl to try to make it to the door to escape. When we emerged, we had to stay outside for hours, unsure which buildings were strong enough or safe enough to return to. I was fortunate to make it through that day unscathed, but not untouched. The experience was terrifying. Its effects linger with me still. Our hotel was damaged during the earthquake and was no longer safe to enter, so we made our way straight to the airport, where we spent two nights before being evacuated by plane. As we got on the road, I saw the ruins and destruction all around me. I couldn’t shake the thought of how unfair it was that I had a home to go to, unlike the thousands of families whose entire lives were suddenly reduced to rubble. Disasters of such magnitude cause irreparable damage to the lives of those who already have so little. I witnessed this when I returned to Nepal to help with relief efforts three weeks after the earthquake and then again a year later when I returned as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). I thought again of Nepal when I watched the coverage of the devastating earthquake that hit Turkiye and Syria last month. Even before the earthquake struck, the socioeconomic conditions in Syria were dire, with approximately 90% of the population living in poverty and millions in need of humanitarian assistance. Many are now homeless and lack the means to rebuild their lives or keep their families safe. Crises are not just moments of catastrophe. They expose deep existing inequalities. Those living in poverty, especially women and girls, bear the brunt. In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, lack of sanitation, health facilities and safety disproportionately affect women. As a goodwill ambassador, I have seen up close how women and girls are often the last to go back to school and get basic services such as clean water, vaccines, identity cards and counselling. They are typically the last to get jobs and loans. In Syria, the United Nations anticipates about 40,000 women will give birth in the coming months without access to sanitary conditions. When women have to sleep out in the open, which is often the case when buildings have collapsed or are unsafe, or in group shelters without adequate privacy or protection, they are at increased risk of sexual violence and assault, which skyrocket in the aftermath of a disaster. To fully recover from a disaster and be prepared for the next one, the specific needs of women and girls must be factored into the humanitarian response. Women must also play leadership roles in the recovery process. But women are woefully under-represented in decision-making which affects their prospects of survival in times of crisis. This gap has a dangerous effect. Studies have shown that women are hit hardest in disasters. Women and girls are often at a disadvantage when it comes to rescue efforts and women are more likely than men to suffer from hunger. We know women sustain their communities. Their voices, leadership and full participation are key to an inclusive, successful and sustainable recovery. This means considering women’s needs, priorities and safety when rebuilding neighbourhoods and constructing schools and marketplaces. It means ensuring women have equal access to information, job opportunities and skills training, as well as loans and insurance mechanisms, which are all crucial to regain financial stability. We know having more women in positions of power and as decision-makers at community, national and institutional levels leads to more inclusive policies, laws and practices that protect and contribute to gender equality at all levels. It means striving for zero tolerance for gender-based violence at home, work, online or anywhere else. And it also means investing in women’s education to ensure their voices are represented at the highest levels of government and society. We live in a world plagued by recurrent pandemics, wars and disasters, and we are struggling with climate change. It can feel insurmountable. But we also live during a time of incredible technological advancements. Information and communication technologies are our most powerful allies in battling these crises. Technology keeps essential social services running, improves crisis response, strengthens communities and boosts economic recovery. And yet the digital world is also a place of inequality. Globally, 2.7 billion people are excluded from digital connectivity, most of them women. As a result, according to the World Bank, women face barriers to getting access to information and resources in all spheres of their lives, including how to adequately prepare for, respond to and cope with a disaster. Reducing the digital divide is critical in changing deeply ingrained gender social norms and ensuring that women’s voices and leadership are embedded at the highest levels before, during and after a disaster. Furthermore, we must make measurable investments in women’s education that promote digital literacy and STEM fields. This year we are halfway toward the 2030 target date to achieve what the United Nations calls Sustainable Development Goals, a blueprint for a shared global vision of a world without poverty or inequality. What I have learned through my work with UNDP is that realising these global goals will be possible only if we achieve true gender equality, everywhere and in all aspects of life — especially in times of crisis — and in anticipation of the next disaster. I’m 60 years old and I just won my first Oscar. I know something about perseverance and I am all too aware of what society expects of women. I’m also well aware that my experience can’t compare at all with the women heroes I met, who are on the front lines of crises. But if I can do one thing with this moment of my professional joy, it would be to point the spotlight on those who all too often go unacknowledged, the women who are rebuilding their communities, taking care of children and older people, and putting food on the table. Let’s make sure they are not missing from the room when decisions are being made that affect them the most. Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh is an actor and a UNDP goodwill ambassador. Comments: [emailprotected] The implications of artificial intelligence in finance THE democratisation of artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) will lead to a proliferation of new startups, services and products that prospers our economy not just from a consumer perspective, but also for founders, creators and prosumers. From a financial perspective, AI is particularly helpful in corporate finance as it can better predict and assess loan risks. For companies looking to increase their value, AI technologies such as machine learning can help improve loan underwriting and reduce financial risks. The use of AI in investment and banking, however, depends on the availability of large volumes of good-quality and timely data. Financial institutions are using AI to derive more accurate and granular data insights to analyse large amounts of financial data which include market trends, customer behaviours and predictions of market conditions. Analysing such data can help financial institutions make better investment decisions, identify frauds and improve their risk management. Financial analysts and investors are using GPT-3 to generate financial reports and summaries. Automating such tasks lowers overall costs as it reduces the need for manual labour. AI can also help companies stay more compliant by automatically identifying any data that is not complying with regulatory standards. It can significantly improve the finance sector’s efficiency, accuracy, and compliance. For example, ChatGPT benefits the finance and accounting sector in terms of automating repetitive tasks such as data entry, invoice processing and report generation. Such automation results in fewer human errors and more accuracy in data entry and report generation tasks. As AI continues to be improved, it can now understand and respond to natural language inputs, making it more effective at handling customer inquiries and providing financial advice. ChatGPT for instance is automating routine tasks such as account management and balance inquiries and improving the overall customer experience and satisfaction. Overall, companies in the financial sector can use AI to improve their operations, gain a competitive advantage and create new growth opportunities. Incorporating AI in finance allows for the handling of routine tasks such as balance inquiries and payment information, reducing the workload of call centre staff and allowing them to focus on more complex and specialised tasks and strategies. However, there are certain hurdles that we must cross if we are to consider the full implementation of AI in financial institutions. With the storage and use of large quantities of sensitive data, data privacy and cybersecurity are of paramount importance. Difficulties in explaining the rationale of AI financial decisions are increasingly an important issue as AI algorithms may uncover unknown correlations in data sets that stakeholders may struggle to understand due to the underlying causality being unknown. These models may perform poorly in the event of major and sudden movements in input data, resulting in the breakdown of established correlations (for example, in response to a crisis), potentially providing inaccurate decisions, with adverse outcomes for financial institutions or their clients. Another point to note is AI’s ability to replicate what seems like authentic human speech speaks to an innate aspect of the human experience, inciting empathy automatically. When a machine elicits empathy, it raises the question of whether that is truly a sign of humanity, perhaps lowering our responsiveness to empathy toward real humans. AI creations blur the boundaries of humanity, distorting perceptions of ourselves. That is the most dangerous part. As machine learning and the development of general artificial intelligence continue to progress, this is certainly of concern. As more economic activities become automated, we may be looking at a development of a similar magnitude as the last industrial revolution. The question for humanity is what people will choose to do with our minds once they are liberated from many of the tasks that can now be handed over to an AI. While it is true that AI could also free us, thus amplifying our capabilities and economy, humanity could be justifiably worried as the rise of AI could result in people facing mass unemployment and a replacement of human tasks that give us meaning. Though it is important to note that without leveraging the uniquely human factors of empathy and understanding, financial institutions might struggle to build relationships with their customers, which is harmful to retention. In this way, it is essential to have a significant human component in customer service strategies. For institutions to succeed, they must establish a balance between human interaction and digital tools. Combining the two will see bigger increases in customer loyalty and retention, rather than focusing on one. What is clear is that people have an opportunity to leverage AI to build a better future if they choose to apply it with ethics, intelligence and creativity. Dr Uma Murthy is a lecturer for the School of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Business and Law, Taylor’s University. Comments: [emailprotected] COMMENT by Dr Uma Murthy COMMENT by Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh “If I can do one thing with this moment of my professional joy, it would be to point the spotlight on those who all too often go unacknowledged, the women who are rebuilding their communities, taking care of children and older people, and putting food on the table.
10 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 KUALA LUMPUR: Property developer Radium Development Bhd will focus on developing two housing projects in Kuala Lumpur with a cumulative gross development value (GDV) of RM1.52 billion in 2023. Chairman Tan Sri Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz said these projects are the R Suites Chancery Residences (Chancery) in Ampang with a GDV of RM521 million, and an upcoming development in Salak South/Sungai Besi with an estimated GDV of RM1 billion. Launched early this year, the 51-storey Chancery, which is developed on 0.88ha of land consists of 944 residential suites, commercial spaces, and exclusive amenities as well as a 145- room hotel managed by a well-known private hotel brand. In an interview with Bernama, he said the project is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2025, well ahead of the contractual date of Q4 2027 approved by the Ministry of Housing and Local government. Meanwhile, the development in Salak South/Sungai Besi is targeted to be launched in the second quarter of 2023 and consists of two property components namely urban residences, and affordable homes with 1,218 units for each component. In line with Radium’s motto, Mhd Amin Nordin explained, the developer is focused on “building good”. On group managing director Datuk Gary Gan Kah Siong’s successful transformation of Setapak’s squatter land, he said that with Setapak, Gan had a goal in 2005 of developing affordable housing for the community to keep up with rapid urbanisation. “In accordance with the Zero Squatter Policy set out by the government in 2001, Gan took the initiative to identify squatters’ land. In his efforts to develop affordable homes, he set a high standard that led to well-planned infrastructure around the area. Currently, there is zero squatter in Setapak,” added Mhd Amin Nordin. Chancery is now set to become a landmark in its own right, and the units come with excellent furnishings, which will make moving in for purchasers much simpler. “I am confident this Chancery project will be more than 80% sold this year while the Salak South/Sungai Besi project will be over 60% sold. “This is because housing demand will always increase based on the estimated Kuala Lumpur population that will reach 2 million people in the near future, and with many people coming to work in the city, they would need affordable housing,” he said. Apart from the two housing projects this year, Mhd Amin Nordin said, Radium is also working towards a listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd in Q2 2023. “We hope with this initial public offering, we can continue to concentrate on facilitating home ownership in Kuala Lumpur, particularly in the affordable homes category,” he said. Radium has completed five affordable housing developments thus far namely Vista OUG Residensi and Vista OUG PPAM in Bukit OUG, Vista Wirajaya 1 & 2 Residensi Wilayah in Taman Melati, and Vista Semarak in Jalan Semarak. The company has had almost 100% take-up for its units since the launch of its first development in Jalan Semarak in 2017 and achieved total revenue of RM2.1 billion as of October 2022. Currently, Radium has 3.95ha of land bank in Salak South/Sungai Besi. It has also entered into a joint-venture agreement for the purpose of developing 2.08ha in Mukim Batu and shortlisted three parcels of land in Mukim Petaling. oR Suites Chancery Residences to be completed in Q4 2025, Salak South/Sungai Besi development will be launched in the second quarter of this year Tropicana Miyu sold out, driven by location and design PETALING JAYA: Property developer Tropicana Corporation Bhd’s Tropicana Miyu has achieved a full sales take-up for its development of 271 condominium units, which was driven by its location and contemporary design. CEO Joanne Lee said that the theme of the development was ‘a place for me and you’, that balanced the past and the present. “This theme runs throughout the development, from its location near modern amenities such as malls and MRT stations along with established, historic areas and neighbourhoods, as well as our focus on intergenerational living. “The majority of purchasers are domestic buyers, primarily from Petaling Jaya, buying for own stay purposes or for their children. These demographics speak to the success of our targeted marketing approach for Tropicana Miyu, as we continue Redefining the Art of Living,” she said in a statement. With easy access to the Damansara-Puchong Expressway and Sprint (Western KL Dispersal Scheme) Expressway, Tropicana Miyu offers proximity to the bustling city centre as well as Petaling Jaya. Its distinctive façade draws the eye with elegant wood and gold aesthetics, while lowdensity design and practical layouts cater for metropolitan lifestyles. Launched in September 2020, Tropicana Miyu features built-ups from 600 sq ft to 2,183 sq ft, with expected completion by August 2024. A grand double-volume foyer welcomes owners and residents on the ground floor, while a host of luxurious facilities such as a floating gymnasium, 40m infinity pool and multipurpose hall offer modern conveniences on Level 7. In addition, Tropicana recently undertook an enhancement initiative to deliver even more convenience and value appreciation for purchasers. These measures included insulating Tropicana Miyu’s reinforced concrete roof, installing double pole switches & 20Amp kitchen hob power supplies for individual units, updating lift controls to be contactless, as well as the introduction of a new parcel and food delivery collection point at the entrance lobby. Tropicana Miyu is a joint venture with Temokin Holdings Sdn Bhd. B R I E F SNEXGRAM UNIT SECURES MANAGEMENT RIGHT FOR LANGKAWI PROPERTY KUALA LUMPUR: Nexgram Holdings Bhd (Nexgram) via its wholly owned sub-subsidiary Medic Asset Group Sdn Bhd (MAGSB) has signed a conditional agreement to acquire the entire management right for a 16,900 sqm land in Langkawi together with a hotel on it for RM22.5 million. The vendor Wings By Croske Resort Langkawi Sdn Bhd (Wings) will be paid via the issuance of 250,000 redeemable convertible preference shares in MAGSB at an issue price of RM90 per share, Nexgram said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia on March 10. The equipment trading, logistics and healthcare group said there would be a profit-sharing arrangement between MAGSB (25%) and Wings (75%) from the monthly net profit generated from the business of the 218-room hotel, Century One Helang Hotel Langkawi. “Due to Wings being appointed as government Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2023 hotelier, the management decided to complete the business acquisition first to realise on the investment, while awaiting certain conditions subsequent to be completed for further consideration,” Nexgram said. – Bernama LABUAN’S LARGEST SERVICED OFFICE OPERATOR EXPANDS TO PENINSULAR MALAYSIA LABUAN: Labuan’s largest serviced offices operator Universal Serviced Offices & Management Ltd (USO) has expanded its operations to Peninsular Malaysia following an overwhelming response from various business establishments nationwide. First established in Labuan in February 2021, USO will officially open its co-working/serviced office branch in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur in May under Universal Services Office Sdn Bhd. USO CEO Hesham Mansour said the interior design of the serviced offices is based on a Parisian-styled facility. “We decided to expand our operation to the Peninsula after considering the potential market owing to the limited and pricey office space rental around Kuala Lumpur,” he told Bernama recently. USO Serviced Offices Bangsar South is located within easy walking distance to the Kerinchi LRT station, food and beverage outlets, supermarkets, medical centres, hotels, banks, pharmacies and convenience stores, among others. Hesham said its Bangsar South branch offers 153 fully equipped working stations, besides 12 workstations in the open/shared coworking space. TRANSACTION VALUE IN 2022 EXPECTED TO HIT RECORD HIGH KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s total property transaction value in 2022 is likely to surpass the highest level ever recorded of RM161 billion back in 2014, driven by the recovery in demand. Ahmad Zamzuri Kamarudin, a director on the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents’ (MIEA) board of directors, said that as of the third quarter (3Q) of 2022, Malaysia’s total property transaction value stood near RM141 billion recorded in 2021. Meanwhile, MIEA president Chan Ai Cheng said buyers’ confidence appears to have returned as inquiries for rental and sales had improved in the last quarter of 2022. – Bernama 168 Park Selayang officially launches sales gallery KUALA LUMPUR: 168 Park Selayang is set to appeal to first-time house buyers eyeing affordable properties close to KL city centre. Comprising three high-rise residential properties with decent-sized units and unobstructed sky views, optimised layouts, multi-tier security and a shopping mall, 168 Park Selayang is set to become the new and fresh focal point in the mature Selayang area. The 168 Park Selayang sales gallery was recently launched by Edward Lum, CEO of 168 Park Selayang Sdn Bhd. The sales gallery is located at Lot 168, Jalan Kuching, Bandar Selayang and is open daily from 9am until 5pm. 168 Park Selayang offers 1,433 high-rise residences in two blocks. Block A comes in eight sizes, ranging from 560 sq ft to 1,050 sq ft with a starting price of RM297,000. Block B comes in four sizes, which will be launched soon. The variety of units presents potential homeowners with a wide selection to suit their lifestyle and budget. “We are in a unique position to provide friendly pricing due to our contractor background. By leveraging our knowledge of the construction process and using efficient building practices, we are able to pass on substantial savings to our customers. The residential units offer holistic, sustainable, and integrated lifestyles without compromising quality and convenience. One of the key highlights of 168 Park Selayang is its high accessibility via Jalan Kuching, Middle Ring Road 2, DUKE and Kepong-Selayang Highway. With a starting price of just RM297,000, buyers can live in a strategically located, modern, nature-friendly unit. We are already seeing positive interest towards the development since the gallery launched,” said Lum. Aligning with the market’s desire for a wellness-centred lifestyle, 168 Park Selayang has 25 retreat-inspired facilities designed to encourage rest and relaxation outdoors, making them ideal for families and individuals to unwind. Among the facilities include reflexology, child care, herbs garden, water playground, swimming pool, a barbecue area, and more. Residents of 168 Park Selayang will enjoy an improved quality of life with access to these facilities and can look forward to spending more quality time with their families and friends, whilst also engaging in healthy activities that will benefit their well-being. The emphasis on wellness at 168 Park Selayang goes beyond the facilities offered to residents, the development’s 235,000 sq ft lifestyle neighbourhood mall will also benefit the surrounding area. The two-level shopping mall, which includes a cinema, will offer a vibrant and convenient social hub for the wider community to enjoy. Radium to focus on two KL projects with RM1.52b GDV The 51-storey Chancery consists of 944 residential suites, commercial spaces, and exclusive amenities as well as a 145-room hotel managed by a well-known private hotel brand. – RADIUM WEBSITE
KLCI 1,403.93 10.10 STI 3,172.92 43.17 HANG SENG 19,539.87 291.91 SCI 3,263.31 7.44 NIKKEI 27,229.48 TSEC 15,387.59 27.17 KOSPI 2,379.72 S&P/ASX200 7,068.90 60.00 THURSDAY MARCH 16, 2023 Editorial Tel: 03-7784 6688 Fax: 03-7785 2624/5 Email: [emailprotected] Advertising Tel: 03-7784 8888 Fax: 03-7784 4424 Email: [emailprotected] 5 MOST ACTIVES March 15, 2023 STOCK VOL CLSG (sen) +/– (sen) HONGSENG 299,949,700 15.0 +0.5 OPPSTAR 199,558,000 243.0 +180.0 CFM-WA 156,933,700 9.0 -3.0 HONGSENG-WB 134,275,700 0.5 UNCH BSLCORP 82,821,700 4.0 -1.0 EXCHANGERATES MARCH 15, 2023 Foreign currency Bank sell Bank buy Bank buy TT/OD TT OD 1 US DOLLAR 4.5470 4.4100 4.4000 1 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 3.0540 2.9310 2.9150 1 BRUNEI DOLLAR 3.3780 3.2780 3.2700 1 CANADIAN DOLLAR 3.3170 3.2270 3.2150 1 EURO 4.8870 4.7250 4.7050 1 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 2.8430 2.7370 2.7210 1 SINGAPORE DOLLAR 3.3780 3.2780 3.2700 1 STERLING POUND 5.5330 5.3540 5.3340 1 SWISS FRANC 4.9580 4.8410 4.8260 100 UAE DIRHAM 125.2600 118.7000 118.5000 100 BANGLADESH TAKA 4.3800 4.1060 3.9060 100 CHINESE RENMINBI 65.9000 63.3000 N/A 100 HONGKONG DOLLAR 58.5600 55.6100 55.4100 100 INDIAN RUPEE 5.6200 5.2700 5.0700 100 INDONESIAN RUPIAH 0.0306 0.0277 0.0227 100 JAPANESE YEN 3.3860 3.2770 3.2670 100 NEW TAIWAN DOLLAR 15.9000 N/A N/A 100 PAKISTAN RUPEE 1.6700 1.5500 1.3500 100 QATAR RIYAL 125.5400 119.1800 118.9800 100 SAUDI RIYAL 122.4100 116.2100 116.0100 100 SOUTH AFRICA RAND 25.9700 23.4500 23.2500 100 THAI BAHT 13.7500 12.1800 11.7800 Source: Malayan Banking Berhad/Bernama KL MARKET SUMMARY March 15, 2023 INDICES CHANGE FBMEMAS 10,261.30 +79.46 FBMKLCI 1,403.93 +10.10 CONSUMER PRODUCTS 567.85 +2.63 INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS 169.56 +1.03 CONSTRUCTION 158.13 +0.25 FINANCIAL SERVICES 15,482.40 +103.22 ENERGY 838.00 +13.72 TELECOMMUNICATIONS 592.07 +3.09 HEALTH CARE 1,617.13 +27.03 TRANSPORTATION 913.42 +6.86 PROPERTY 673.38 +4.13 PLANTATION 6,722.31 +55.01 FBMSHA 10,559.30 +77.21 FBMACE 5,276.35 +99.47 TECHNOLOGY 61.54 +0.42 TURNOVER VALUE 3.133 BIL RM2.341 BIL 5 TOP GAINERS March 15, 2023 STOCK VOL CLSG (RM) +/– RM PANAMY 5,100 23.10 +0.44 KOTRA 500 6.02 +0.31 MPI 67,600 28.74 +0.26 AEONCR 504,100 11.48 +0.24 AJI 77,400 14.88 +0.22 5 TOP LOSERS March 15, 2023 STOCK VOL CLSG (RM) +/– RM HSI-HNG 3,000 1.34 -0.18 F&N 117,300 25.80 -0.16 TM-C1D 1,000,000 0.06 -0.14 CARLSBG 469,000 21.48 -0.12 HSI-HKO 35,817,700 0.315 -0.105 Oppstar makes spectacular debut on ACE Market with 225% premium KUALA LUMPUR: Integrated circuit (IC) designer Oppstar Bhd made an impressive debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia, opening at RM2.05, a 225.4% premium over its initial public offering (IPO) price of 63 sen per share. Oppstar has raised RM104.25 million from the IPO via the issuance of 165.48 million new ordinary shares. The company plans to use RM50 million from the proceeds to expand its workforce and RM25 million to establish new offices both locally and regionally. By 2025, Oppstar aims to increase its current total workforce of engineers and technicians from 220 to 500. This expansion will enable the company to compete for more orders and tap into larger potential customers while providing flexibility in managing resources and timely service delivery. Meanwhile, RM12 million will go towards research and development expenditure, along with RM12.65 million for working capital. The remaining RM4.6 million will be allocated for its listing-related expenses. Executive director/CEO Ng Meng Thai said that its vision for the company is to show global players that Malaysia is not only known for its back-end semiconductor value chain, but also has the capability to go into front-end semiconductor IC design. “Besides Malaysia, we are now serving From left: Oppstar Bhd chief financial officer Chin Fung Wei, director Datuk Dr Mohd Sofi Osman, chairman Professor Datuk Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir, Ng, executive director and chief technology officer Cheah Hun Wah, executive director and chief operating officer Tan Chun Chiat, directors Datuk Margaret Yeo and Foong Pak Chee at the listing ceremony. █ BY HAYATUN RAZAK [emailprotected] M’sian property market expected to grow in 2023 KAJANG: The Malaysian property market is expected to grow this year despite the projection of moderately lower economic growth due to the unpredictable external environment, said Deputy Finance Minister II Steven Sim. He said that the accommodative policies, continuous government support, execution of measures outlined in the revised Budget 2023, as well as strategies and initiatives under the 12th Malaysia Plan would support the property sector. The national property market recorded more than 389,000 transactions worth RM179 billion in 2022 – an increase of 29.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) in terms of volume and a 23.6% y-o-y rise in value, he added. “The residential sub-sector led the overall property market activity, with 62.5% contribution in volume,” he said in his address at the launch of the 2022 property market report yesterday. oAccommodative policies, govt support and Budget 2023 measures will support sector: Deputy finance minister The text of his speech was read out by Valuation and Property Services Department director-general Abdul Razak Yusak. According to the property market report, there were 243,190 transactions for residential properties worth RM94.28 billion recorded last year, an increase of 22.3% in volume and 22.6% in value y-o-y, supported by the uptrend recorded in Penang (31.1%), Johor (24.3%), Perak (18.9%), Kuala Lumpur (18.4%), and Selangor (15.9%). Meanwhile, the commercial property segment registered 32,809 transactions worth RM32.61 billion in 2022, a growth of 46.3% in volume and 16.7% in value compared to 2021. The residential overhang numbers declined to 27,746 units worth RM18.41 billion as of the fourth quarter of 2022, down by 24.7% and 19.2% in volume and value, respectively compared with 36,864 units worth RM22.79 billion in the same period in 2021. The report noted that Johor retained the highest number and value of overhang in the country with 5,285 units worth RM4.33 billion, accounting for 19% and 23.5% of the national volume and value respectively. This was followed by Selangor (3,698 units worth RM3.36 billion), Penang (3,593 units; RM2.74 billion) and Kuala Lumpur (3,429 units; RM3.15 billion). Nevertheless, the overhang volume in all four states decreased, each fell by 13.8%, 39.3%, 34.6%, and 12.2% compared to 2021, mainly due to the absorption of supplies in the affordable price bracket (RM300,000 and below). Construction activity recorded an increase in housing starts which grew 13.4% to 97,804 units while new planned supply increased by 14.9% to 89,111 units compared to 2021. Contrarily, completions were down by 5.8% to 71,981 units, the property market report said. The Malaysian House Price Index (HPI) stood at 208.4 points in 2022, with a low annual growth of 2.8%. The report said Terraced HPI managed to sustain growth at 3.7%, followed by HighRise Price Index (3.4%) and Semi-Detached Price Index (2.9%). However, Detached HPI saw a slight decline of 2.9%. The overall performance of shopping complex continued to moderate, recording an occupancy rate of 75.4%, down from 76.3% in 2021. The report said Kuala Lumpur and Selangor recorded 77.5% and 82.7% respectively above national occupancy rate, whereas Johor and Penang managed to secure an average occupancy of 68.8% and 72.6%, respectively. Meanwhile, Negri Sembilan and Malacca recorded among the lowest occupancy rate in the country, each at 66.6% and 61.2%. – Bernama clients in countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, as well as the US. As we gradually progress, we continually ask ourselves what we can do to expand our business and continue to build up Malaysia’s profile in the front-end semiconductor space. This was where the rationale to go for a listing came about leading up to this today,” he told a media conference after the listing ceremony yesterday. In addition, he stated that the reason it has decided to list on the exchange is to enable the company to attract and develop future talent, thereby allowing it to compete with other multinational companies and ultimately strengthening Malaysia’s frontend semiconductor ecosystem. Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd is the principal adviser, sponsor, sole placement agent and sole underwriter for the initial public offering exercise. 18.00 30.75 Participation 45.7 27.5 26.8 100.0 Institutions Retail Foreign Bought RM m 1123.7 632.2 585.6 2341.5 Sold RM m 1017.7 655.3 668.5 2341.5 Net RM m 106.0 -23.1 -82.9 0 % Preliminary stats (excluding trade amendments). For final data, please refer to www.bursamalaysia.com Source: Bursa Malaysia A Participating Organisation of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad A Trading Participant of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad S E C U R I T I E S S D N. B H D. 197201001092 (12738-U) 15/03/2023
12 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 SUNBIZ @thesundaily FOLLOW ON TWITTER SCAN ME Scientex posts improved Q2 net profit of RM106.3m SHAH ALAM: Global packaging manufacturer and leading property developer Scientex Bhd registered healthy bottom-line growth in the second quarter ended Jan 31, (Q2’23) with 13.5% higher net profit to RM106.3 million from RM93.7 million in the previous corresponding quarter, on better product mix with consumer packaging as well as improved property sales and steady construction progress. Revenue increased 2.8% to RM978.4 million in Q2’23 from RM952 million previously, as higher contributions from the property division mitigated a slight dip from the packaging division in line with global sentiment. Scientex Bhd CEO Lim Peng Jin said, “Scientex’s long-term plans for the packaging division are intact, including prioritising sustainable innovations in collaboration with global customers to meet their sustainability goals with greener solutions. We also continue to bring new innovations to our customers that enhance their product value, competitive edge, as well as optimise performance and efficiency.” He added their property division is seeing strong take-up for the RM1.15 billion worth of affordable homes launched in the first half of oRevenue rises to RM978.4m as property division’s higher contribution mitigates dip from packaging division financial year ending July 31, 2023 across various states in Malaysia namely Johor, Malacca, Selangor, Penang, as well as maiden launch in Kedah. “Moving forward, Scientex intends to upkeep a steady pace of growth across both engines, centred on achieving overall well-being of stakeholders including customers and the larger society as part of our Environmental, Social, and Governance thrust,” he said. The packaging division registered revenue of RM655.1 million in Q2’23 compared with RM692.8 million previously on lower industrial packaging sales as global buyers remained cautious due to market volatility, mitigated by firm demand for consumer packaging as well as enhanced product mix. Meanwhile, the property division posted 24.7% higher revenue of RM323.3 million compared with RM259.2 million previously, on the back of improving sales and healthy construction progress, as well as positive demand for new affordable homes launches in Sungai Petani, Kedah. Group revenue for the six-month period ended Jan 31, 2023 (H1’23) grew 6.8% to RM2 billion from RM1.9 billion in the previous period on stable sales in the packaging division, and higher contribution from the property development division. The higher revenue led to a rise in group net profit by 8.6% to RM213.5 million in H1’23 versus RM196.6 million previously. On the group’s outlook, Lim said, “Our packaging division is committed to improving our cost competitiveness through operating efficiency, which has been our hallmark and success factor in the past decades. In addition, we will consistently pursue the development of high-value innovative and sustainable packaging solutions, therefore positioning us well to weather the weaker global demand environment due to ongoing uncertainties.” In the latest financial year ended July 31, 2022 (FY22), he added, they commercialised 27 new innovations, including recyclable industrial packaging, as well as consumer packaging with post-industrial and post-consumer recycled content for food manufacturers. In our property division, he said, the improved authority approval process, gradual easing of labour shortages, and pause in interest rate hike by Bank Negara Malaysia support a better outlook for the sector. “We are also continuing efforts to enhance resource planning and optimisation to address rising operational costs, as well as greater adoption of Industrialised Building System in our projects,” said Lim, adding that while witnessing robust demand for affordable homes in Malaysia, they are also exploring opportunities to expand into new markets in the Southeast Asia region, which can benefit from their building technology and experience in affordable homes to meet the demands of increasing populations. AmBank, CGC extend RM400m extra funding to help MSME KUALA LUMPUR: AmBank Group and Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC) have extended their financing facilities by an additional RM400 million under the SME (small and medium enterprise) Portfolio Guarantee Scheme, to benefit about 800 local micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME). The RM400 million additional financing will be executed under AmBank’s Retail SME channel to support MSME, especially those in e-commerce, a segment with vast potential for growth. Under the scheme, eligible SME can apply for financing facilities of up to RM1 million with repayment tenure of up to seven years, where 70% of the principal financing amount will be guaranteed by CGC and approved within one day. The new tranche continues to finance e-commerce segment with a loan amount from RM20,000 to RM200,000 which applies to firms operating more than two years. Existing AmBank merchant clients with certain eligibility are qualified to apply for AmBank Pay-As-You-Grow Unsecured Term Loan, which bundles with Merchant Point-of-Sales and Deposit Account. AmBank Group CEO Datuk From left: Sulaiman, AmBank Bhd managing director (retail banking) Aaron Loo, CGC Malaysia Bhd senior vicepresident (business development & products) Mohamed Azman Mohamed Taufik and Mohd Zamree at the signing ceremony yesterday. █ BY HAYATUN RAZAK [emailprotected] Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said that this extension is part of an ongoing collaboration between the two organisations aimed at developing and financing the local SME segment. “Since the launch in 2016, the Retail SME Portfolio Guarantee Scheme has reached a total of RM3 billion, benefiting over 4,000 SME businesses in the nation. In total group wide, we have provided about RM4.5 billion worth of financing in collaboration with CGC, reaching out to more than 5,000 SME,” he said during the media conference yesterday. This partnership continues to provide financing access to SME who require financing without the need to put in collateral as the CGC guarantee fee is borne by AmBank. CGC president & CEO Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak reiterated that it remains steadfast in its financial inclusion agenda and commitment to assisting MSME to gain access to financing. “Over the last seven years, the CGC-AmBank Retail SME partnership has strengthened, delivering 17 Portfolio Guarantees tranches worth RM3 billion and benefiting over 4,000 MSME. “These additional RM400 million financing facilities offering working capital are aimed to support MSME especially those in e-commerce, a segment with vast potential for growth,” he said. SME Bank: No in-house documentation fees anymore for small firms KUALA LUMPUR: SME Bank, a leading Development Financial Institution, announced that it has ceased imposing in-house documentation (IHD) fees and charges on micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) customers effective yesterday. The decision reflects SME Bank’s commitment to putting its customers first and its focus on providing transparent and fair practices to improve customer satisfaction and build trust with its customers coinciding with the Malaysia Madani concept namely Sustainability, Prosperity, Innovation, Respect, Trust and Compassion. In-house documentation fees are charges that are imposed on the bank’s MSME customers for the financing documents prepared by SME Bank between the bank and its MSME customers. Hong Leong AM wins big at Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards 2023 KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Leong Asset Management Bhd (Hong Leong AM) bagged 15 individual fund awards for the second consecutive year, exemplifying Hong Leong AM’s commitment to delivering persistent, risk-adjusted returns for investors. Four of Hong Leong AM’s EPFMembers Investment Scheme (MIS) approved funds have maintained their winning streaks in various categories of the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards 2023, two of which are Islamic funds. Hong Leong AM executive director/CEO Hoo See Kheng said, “We are very honoured to be recognised again by the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards. The awards serve as validation and testimony to the reliability of our investment philosophy and strategies which are meticulously executed by our award-winning investment team.” He added Hong Leong AM continuously refines and adopts appropriate investment strategies to help them navigate through challenging market conditions. He said, despite the prolonged bear market and harsh macro environment in 2022, their bottomup stock-picking strategy remains consistent in generating long-term, sustainable fund outperformance, especially in the local market. Penang clock up RM13.7b approved manufacturing investments in 2022 GEORGE TOWN: Penang has managed to clock up RM13.7 billion in approved manufacturing investments from January to December last year. In a statement, Invest Penang said this showed that the state continued to attract active participation from both new and existing investors due to its established reputation with 50 years of industrial success. “The state received RM9.7 billion (71%) in foreign direct investments (FDI) and RM4 billion (29%) in domestic direct investments (DDI) for manufacturing in 2022. “The investment inflows in the said year involved 135 projects and are expected to generate 15,752 new job opportunities in the state,” it said. It said notable investment projects included foreign corporations like TF AMD and Boston Scientific as well as domestic firms like Greatech Integration and Inari Technology. Invest Penang said Penang is the second-highest contributor among all states in Malaysia’s approved manufacturing investments in 2022 with a 16% share. It said the state’s key promoted industries, including those in electronics and electrical, machinery and equipment, and scientific and measuring equipment, including medical devices, were said to be the main drivers of Penang’s overall approved manufacturing investments. “In 2022, investments in these sectors will account for 85% of Penang’s total approved manufacturing investments, which is equal to 27% of Malaysia’s investments in these three industries. “This demonstrated Penang’s instrumental role in driving Malaysia’s participation in the global supply chain in these areas,” it added. Meanwhile, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said Penang stood out as a highly attractive investment destination with dynamic industries that are supported by a highly-qualified talent pool. “The state’s resilient economic performance underscores investors’ sustained confidence in the state and sets the stage for its development to greater heights. “The Penang state government would like to express our deepest appreciation to the investors for their confidence in Penang as well as to Malaysian Investment Development Authority for a conducive and fruitful collaboration with InvestPenang in attracting strategic investments into the state,” he added. – Bernama
13 * SUNBIZ theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 Sim Leisure stages record-breaking financial performance for FY22 KUALA LUMPUR: In a grand comeback following the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw much of the leisure and attractions industry taking a beating, Singapore Exchange-listed Sim Leisure Group Ltd posted stellar results for its financial year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY22). Cementing its best financial year on record, the group posted record revenue of RM67.596 million, a 282% year-on-year increase from 2021. Meanwhile, the group’s net profit soared to RM25.931 million, marking a 350% turnaround from a net loss registered in the previous financial year. The results also marked a stark increase from the group’s revenue and net profit recorded during the first half of FY22, which stood at RM26.571 million and RM10.107 million respectively. KidZania Kuala Lumpur, which the group acquired in December 2020, saw profit after just seven months of operation in 2022, after it reopened its doors following pandemic-related restrictions and a turnaround of the business from years of losses incurred under the previous ownership. The kids’ edutainment attraction recorded a net profit of RM6.459 million in FY22, further solidifying Sim Leisure group’s track record of turning around distressed assets. The group’s profit is largely attributed to the increase of visitors to its properties, including its proprietary Escape brand of destinations in Penang and Petaling Jaya, which saw a surge in visitors walking through their gates throughout the year. “We are truly delighted with these financial results and our performance in FY2022. “However, all the signs pointed to the fact that we would be indeed charting record profits and revenue in FY2022, which saw the full lifting of restrictions and the addition of unique attractions that cannot be found anywhere else in this region,” said Sim Leisure Group Founder and chairman Datuk Sim Choo Kheng. “We are still forging ahead with our plans to open seven new destinations within the next year, namely Escape Ipoh, which we expect to open in Q4 2023, as well as Escape Cameron Highlands. Simultaneously, we are in the midst of developing several Escape properties overseas, which will make Escape the first local leisure brand to be exported internationally,” he added. To cement Malaysia’s position on the world’s themed leisure map, Sim Leisure Group has developed Cool Melon, its proprietary technology, implementing it at all of its attractions to provide a seamless visitor experience. GFM Services to acquire firm, develop rest area along KL-Karak Highway KUALA LUMPUR: Integrated facilities management service provider GFM Services Bhd yesterday announced the proposed acquisition of a 100%-stake in Atmajaya Arvino Sdn Bhd for a purchase consideration of RM9 million. The acquisition will enable GFM to design, build, operate, and maintain a Rest & Service Area (RSA) along the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway, a major link from the capital city to Pahang and Terengganu in the East Coast. Atmajaya was awarded approval by the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) to construct and maintain the RSA in Karak, Bentong. GFM group managing director Ruslan Nordin said, “This acquisition represents a strategic move for us to deepen our presence in the highway RSA business and tap into the growing demand for highway services in Malaysia. We have been exploring prospects in this sector and are excited about the potential benefits it brings. This aligns with our aim of expanding the Group’s portfolio and increasing our income streams.” The RSA is strategically situated at Km68.7, where motorists from both the East Coast Expressway and the Karak-Tampin Highway will pass through en route to Kuala Lumpur. Based on traffic study, the traffic volume in 2023 is projected to be 10.4 million vehicles annually, and it is expected to grow in the years ahead. The estimated development cost of the RSA is RM40 million, which will be financed with GFM’s internally generated funds. As of Dec 31, 2022, GFM has a cash balance of RM98.9 million. The project is anticipated to begin in 2024 and be completed in two years. More trade, investment pacts with Malaysia to come: Saudi envoy KUALA LUMPUR: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Malaysia Mesaad Ibrahim Al Sulaim said the kingdom expects the growth in trade and investment with Malaysia to continue this year. He added that there will also be trade and investment agreements that will be signed during this year, which will serve the kingdom’s aspirations to diversify its oil-based economy. According to the latest statistical data, the total bilateral trade for 2022 amounted to US$10.26 billion – an increase of 159.2% compared with US$4.23 billion in 2021. Al-Sulaim indicated that Saudi Arabia is keen to strengthen relations with Malaysia in all fields, especially trade, investment, education, technology, medical services, as well as clean energy and digital economy. Speaking about investments, the ambassador said Malaysian investors are active in the Saudi business sector, and are keen to participate in the kingdom’s Vision 2030, especially in the health and manufacturing sectors. The kingdom’s drive to diversify its economy within the framework of the vision has opened many opportunities, including NEOM City, Red Sea and Saudi Green Initiative projects, which Malaysian companies can compete for, he said in an interview with Bernama. Selangor woos investors to IDRISS, industrial park SHAH ALAM: The Selangor state government is offering new incentives to boost development projects in the state, involving the Integrated Development Region in South Selangor (IDRISS) and the development of an industrial park using the Managed Industrial Park (MIP) concept. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said five incentives have been introduced to drive the development of IDRISS, namely a special premium scheme, interest-free instalment payments of development charges, vacant land assessment tax exemption, a 50% deduction in vacant building assessment tax and business license fee exemption. Speaking at the launch of IDRISS yesterday, Amirudin said as for the industrial park’s development, the state government has introduced several additional incentives to facilitate investments, including fast-tracking processes and approval periods, as well as assessment tax and business license fee exemptions. “The incentives for developers and managers of the industrial park also include interest-free instalment payment for development charges and long-term lease on non-strata development, among others,” he said. He said the incentives are expected to motivate developers and landowners and breathe new life into the state’s economic growth. – Bernama SVB collapse will not affect Malaysian banking industry KUALA LUMPUR: The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crisis in the United States will not affect Malaysia’s banking industry as it remains confident and is well positioned to avoid a similar situation, and there is no direct exposure to the stricken lender, according to AmBank Group and Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (CGC). AmBank Group CEO Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said what happened in the US is unlikely to occur in Malaysia due to the country’s well-regulated banking system and diversified customer base, which shields it from the fallout of the SVB crisis. “The US is different from Malaysia because their interest rates increased too fast. The problem is that many banks invest in longterm bonds, which have lower rates when invested prior to rate hikes. As a result, when rates increase, mark-to-market losses occur. This causes book losses, which reduces their capital and leads to problems. “In the case of SVB, over half of their assets are in bonds, and when they were marked to market, the bank faced risk capital issues. This caused people to panic and withdraw their money. SVB is a small community bank in the US, and regulations are not as strict as for larger banks, which is similar in Malaysia. Therefore, regulators in the US are applying the same controls for smaller banks, hoping to stabilise the situation,” he told reporters after its SME Portfolio Guarantee Scheme collaboration with CGC yesterday. Sulaiman said: “But Malaysia is very much controlled in terms of how much we can do in the bond books. And our interest rates do not increase as aggressively as in the US, which causes a big gap. We also have mark-tomarket losses but it is not as big. In the case of AmBank, the duration of our bonds is not Silicon Valley Bank customers line up before the opening of a branch at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California, on Monday. The collapse of SVB is the most significant bank failure in the United States since the financial crisis of 2008. – AFPPIC oLocal sector well regulated, has diversified customer base and there’s no direct exposure to Silicon Valley Bank: CEOs █ BY HAYATUN RAZAK [emailprotected] long, on average only two to three years.” He said that for Malaysian banks, the impact is small. Additionally, almost all Malaysian banks are regulated in terms of concentration and exposure, even for deposits. Therefore, it is not a systemic issue in Malaysia.” He said inflation in Malaysia is manageable, “so we do not have to increase rates as aggressively because we have a lot of subsidies. But the US has to increase rates fast because it needs to control inflation”. “In Malaysia, it’s very unlikely to happen because there’s nothing systemic ... I don’t see anywhere when you look at all the bank books in terms of their portfolio because it’s very much regulated, it’s very minimal compared to the entire book. You don’t get as big as 57% (SVB investment portfolio in bonds compared to its total asset),” he said. He added that in terms of deposits, customers should be comfortable because the balance sheets of the banks in Malaysia (excluding digital banks) are quite strong. “Local banks are matured, went through all the regulation and control, hence pretty solid. The impact is there due to the investors. They might think it is the same way in Malaysia, but it is only a knee-jerk reaction, they will come back. In addition, we have no exposure to SVB bank, it is a small community bank in the US,” he said. CGC president & CEO Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak concurred with Sulaiman, saying the main factor is mismatch between asset and liability causing mark-to-market losses. “In addition, the diversification of customers’ deposit base is not as large. SVB depositors are the venture capital, tech companies and those holding cryptocurrencies and these are the sectors having problems now so they need to withdraw their money. But when they go to the bank, the money is not there. “But despite only guaranteeing up to US$250,000 , the US authorities now have said that the government is going to guarantee all the money in order to restore confidence and avoid the impact of spreading outside of the country. So there is no systemic risk but we still have to monitor closely.” On Friday, SVB collapsed spectacularly, making it the most significant bank failure in the United States since the financial crisis of 2008. This shocking development has put markets and financial regulators across the globe on edge, as US bank customers are seeking refuge in larger, more secure banks due to mounting concerns over the health of smaller financial institutions and the possibility of additional failures in the industry.
14 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 SUNBIZ READ OUR HERE /thesundaily SCAN ME Japan Inc delivers largest wage increases in decades oAverage hike at ‘shunto’ spring talks this year the highest in about 30 years, says business lobby Keidanren TOKYO: Top Japanese companies offered their largest pay increases in a quarter century at annual labour talks which wrapped up yesterday, heeding, at least for now, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s calls for higher wages to counter rising living costs. Worker pay has been one casualty of years of sputtering growth in the world’s third-largest economy since the late 1990s, leaving Japanese salaries well behind the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development average. But now a weak yen and rising commodities prices have driven up import costs and pushed inflation to the highest in four decades, prompting Kishida to beat the drum for better pay. The average wage increase at “shunto” spring wage talks this year was the highest in about 30 years, according to the Keidanren business lobby, which did not give a more exact figure. That put the increase broadly in line with Wary calm in banking sector as focus shifts to regulation, rates China’s economy picks up, property sector shows progress BEIJING: China’s economic activity picked up in the first two months of 2023 as consumption and infrastructure investment drove recovery from pandemic disruption, despite challenges of weak global demand. China’s abandonment of Covid19 controls late in 2022 has reinvigorated an US$18 trillion (RM80.6 trillion) economy that has suffered one of its lowest growth rates in nearly half a century, with analysts expecting momentum to improve further in coming months. Industrial output in the JanuaryFebruary period was 2.4% higher than a year earlier, data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed yesterday. The reading accelerated from a 1.3% annual rise in December. Retail sales in the first two months jumped 3.5% from a year before, reversing a 1.8% annual fall seen in December. “We expect China’s growth momentum to improve further in coming months, driven mainly by the ongoing consumption recovery and still-accommodative macro policy,” analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note. Fixed asset investment in the first two months was 5.5% higher than a year before, growing little faster than the 5.1% annual rise for all of 2022. Meanwhile, China’s embattled property sector made new progress in its climb out of a months-long slump as official data for JanuaryFebruary showed much narrower declines in home sales, developer investment and construction starts. Home sales by floor area in the first two months of 2023 fell 3.6% from a year earlier, according to the NBS, compared with a 24% decline for the whole of 2022. The narrower sales decline followed a rise in new home prices in January, the first uptick in a year. However, property investment by developers in January-February was down 5.7% on the same period of 2022, improving on December’s 12% annual slump and a 10% decline for the entire 2022. Analysts expect property sales to be the first indicator to turn positive soon. – Reuters B R I E F S A market at the tourism site of Qianmen Street in Beijing. Retail sales in China in the first two months jumped 3.5% from a year before, reversing a 1.8% annual fall seen in December. – REUTERSPIC analysts’ expectations for a boost of almost 3%, which would be the highest since 2.9% in 1997. “This spring marks a turning point for growth and wealth distribution,” Kishida told a meeting with representatives of business lobbies and unions. He also said he aimed for a nationwide increase in the minimum wage. A number of Japan’s biggest corporations – including Toyota Motor Corp and Hitachi Ltd – said they had agreed fully to the requested increases from unions, results that were widely flagged in recent weeks. “Given the surge in prices, employee expectations were running higher than most years,” Hitachi vice-president Kenichi Tanaka told a briefing. The Rengo umbrella labour group had called for a 5% pay hike. This year’s talks marked the first time that all of Japan’s major automakers had fully accepted union demands, Akihiro Kaneko, the president of an umbrella group of automaker unions, said. But for workers at smaller companies – which make up almost 70% of Japan’s workforce – the outlook was less rosy. It remains to be seen whether the higher wage trend will be sustainable, let alone create the “virtuous cycle” of stronger economic growth and 2% inflation long sought by Japan’s central bank, which attaches great importance to wage growth for achieving sustainable inflation, arguing that recent price rises have been from external factors, rather than improving domestic demand. – Reuters SINGAPORE/FRANKFURT: Europe’s bank stocks weakened slightly yesterday, after Japanese peers clawed back some of their heavy losses, as regulators and financial executives hosed down contagion concerns after last week’s Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse. Markets and financial authorities remained on edge, however, with US deposit holders seeking the safety of larger banks amid growing worries about the health of smaller institutions and the prospect of more failures in the sector. However, European Central Bank policymakers are still leaning towards a half-percentage-point rate hike today, despite turmoil in the banking sector, as they expect inflation will remain too high in coming years, a source told Reuters. A number of gauges of financial market stress retreated yesterday, reflecting the greater sense of calm across most asset classes since US authorities stepped in to stem any further turmoil in the banking system. One indicator often used as a measure of banking sector stress, the so-called FRA/OIS spread, dropped to around 2 basis points, from closer to 21 bps the day before. The higher the spread goes, the greater the perception of stress in the market. In the United States, the focus is shifting to the possibility of tighter regulation of banks, particularly midtier ones such as SVB and New Yorkbased Signature Bank, whose collapses roiled financial markets. Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday revised its outlook on the US banking system to “negative” from “stable”, citing heightened sectoral risks. Some calm returned to Wall Street on Tuesday, shoring up Asian markets. The VIX volatility index, often called “Wall Street’s fear gauge”, has retraced some 70% of the rise from March 9 to highs above 30% on March 13. Japan’s Tokyo Stock Exchange banks index jumped more than 4%, after three straight days of heavy selling and the sharpest drop since the days after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan Financials Index was last 1% higher, reversing some of Tuesday’s 2% fall. – Reuters Foxconn to step up investment outside China TAIPEI: Apple Inc supplier Foxconn said yesterday it plans to ramp up investment outside China and efforts to attract automakers to its contract manufacturing business. Foxconn, which assembles around 70% of iPhones, has been diversifying production away from China, whose strict Covid restrictions disrupted its biggest iPhone plant last year. The company also seeks to avoid a potential hit to its business from mounting trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Foxconn chairman Liu Young-way said expansion was needed in countries such as the US, Vietnam, India, Mexico and China, “in response to customer and supply chain adjustments”. He said currently about 70% of the company’s revenue is derived from products made in China, but “going forward the proportion of overseas region will continue to increase”. Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, expected revenue for the first quarter and full year to be flat, as weak demand for consumer electronics would be offset by significant growth in computing, cloud, networking and component products. Net profit for the OctoberDecember quarter fell 10% to NT$40 billion (RM5.7 billion) from a year earlier, the company said – Reuters INDIA’S FEBRUARY PALM OIL IMPORTS DROP TO 8-MONTH LOW MUMBAI: India’s palm oil imports in February dropped 30% from January to their lowest in eight months on weak demand amid buildup in stocks because of excessive imports during November-January, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said. The reduction in palm oil imports by India, the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils, could weigh on Malaysian palm oil prices. India’s palm oil imports fell to 586,007 tonnes last month, the lowest since June 2022, SEA said. “Refiners are now giving preference to bringing down stocks. They have ample stocks to cover short-term demand,” said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house. – Reuters SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS TO INVEST US$230B OVER 20 YEARS SEOUL: South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics expects to invest US$230 billion (RM1.03 trillion) over the next 20 years to develop what the country’s government called the world’s largest chip-making base, in line with efforts to boost the national chip industry. Samsung’s manufacturing additions will include five chip factories and attract up to 150 materials, parts and equipment makers, fabless chipmakers and semiconductor research & development organisations near Seoul, the industry ministry said in a statement. – Reuters
1 6 M A R C H 2 0 2 3 T H U R S D A Y Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia has long been an attractive proposition for travellers. Now, its digital nomad “visa”, which is in fact a residence permit, enables remote workers to stay for up to a year. Applicants from third-party countries must prove they work for a company outside of Croatia or own their own business based elsewhere. They must have valid health insurance and prove they can financially support themselves, earning at least 16,142 kuna (RM9,941) per month and 646 kuna (RM398) per additional family member. Estonia If you’re looking to save, Estonia could be just the ticket. Renowned for its comparatively cheap living costs, the country has also gained a reputation for being a major digital hub for remote workers. First introduced in July 2020, its visa for remote workers allows them to live in the country for a maximum of one year. With more than 50% of the country covered in forest, this is a great destination for nature lovers. However, successful applicants need a higher income than that required by other schemes: they must earn at least €3,500 (RM16,769) a month. Barbados Powder-white sands, warm turquoise waters and a Unesco World Heritage-listed capital: the prospect of spending a year on this Caribbean island is an irresistible one. Introduced in 2020, the Welcome Stamp visa enables people from around the world to spend a year in “paradise”. The visa costs US$2,000 (RM8,965) for individuals and US$3,000 (RM13,448) for families and lasts one year, but applicants can reapply. Visa holders are also exempt from paying Barbados income tax. You’ll need to be bringing home the proverbial bacon to join the party, however, with successful applicants required to earn at least US$50,000 (RM224,130) per annum. “Covid-19 has changed work globally, with a larger number working remotely from home. Now we can give you certainty for the next 12 months that you can work from here,” said Prime Minister, Mia Mottley. “Rather than coming for the usual week, or three weeks or a month, why not plan out your business? “We have a mechanism that allows people who want to take advantage of being in a different part of the world, of the sun, sea and sand, and a stable society; one that functions well. Barbados is a perfect place for you to come.” – The Independent/Agencies THE Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for the adoption of hybrid working, with many businesses’ staff now often combining remote working with more traditional office-based hours. With this more flexible approach to work, more people have also embraced life as a digital nomad, an approach that enables them to work from anywhere in the world with a reliable internet connection, while also enjoying the benefits of global travel. In November 2021, a study by Employment Hero revealed that 72% of Malaysian employees would consider moving overseas for better pay and improved career prospects. The digital nomad lifestyle would definitely offer a good alternative to full-blown migration. Tempted? You’re in good company. We’ve selected some of the best destinations for remote working. Spain Glorious weather, great beaches and excellent food: it’s not hard to see why Spain’s popularity endures. Those reluctant to come home after a week of sun and sangria are in a good position after the Mediterranean country announced its new digital nomad visa, which will enable those from other nonEU countries to have the chance to work and live abroad. Successful applicants will be permitted to live and work in Spain for up to a year initially, with a possible extension of up to five years. The visa will be available to those who work remotely for companies outside of Spain, as well as workers who receive up to a maximum of 20% of their income from Spanish-based businesses. Applicants must show they earn enough money to be self-sufficient and will be required to present an employment contract showing they’ve worked with a company for three months or more. If self-employed, the applicant must prove they’ve worked with businesses outside of Spain for longer than a year. The application process is set to open before the end of March 2023. Portugal Home to some of the oldest wine-growing regions in the world, golden beaches and gnarly surf spots, Portugal has plenty to recommend it for a working holiday. And digital nomads can now apply for the Passive Income D7 visa in order to stay and work there for longer. Once approved, applicants are issued with a Portuguese residency card that is valid for two years, with the option to renew at the end of the second year. The Passive Income Visa is aimed at those who intend to live in the country, however, so you must spend six consecutive months, or eight non-consecutive months in Portugal, each year. Applicants must also earn a minimum of €8,460 (RM40,533) per year. Croatia “Croatia, your new office!” proclaimed the name of the campaign launched by the Croatian National Tourist Board in 2021 to attract digital nomads to the Balkan country. Boasting 1,800km of dreamy coastline on the Adriatic Sea, plus the historic cities of Work around the world oFive of the best destinations for remote working while on holiday Granada’s Alhambra Palace, Spain. – ALL PIX FROM THE INDEPENDENT Tallinn in Estonia. Praia da Marinha beach on the Algarve, Portugal. Split bay, Croatia. Bottom Bay in Barbados. Bathsheba in Barbados, just one of the country’s offering remote working opportunities.
16 ENTERTAINMENT theSun LYFE ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 Magnificent setting for the indie scene NEW underground music event The Magnificent 8 has been serving as a platform for local indie bands, musicians, and singers, giving them a chance to promote themselves and grow more independently. The Mag 8 gigs, which have been held since last year, are divided into different series, with eight performers from across the country showcasing their talent and performing on specific days. I was granted the opportunity to attend The Mag 8’s Volume 19 gigs on Feb 26, which differs from the previous series as it also features hiphop, rather than their usual punk, rock, and metal. Being held at Migos Garage, Seri Kembangan, the shows went extremely well, (even with a slight delay in timing) with every performer giving their absolute best performance. In addition to up-and-coming band Smesta, the series also featured rising stars ROHA, Gessavic, Vota, Mellowflowers, 3i1e, Northeast Childs, and Jinxte. Considering that the event has reached 19 volumes in under a year, I spoke with The Mag 8 organiser, Megat Yaesree, as well as Vol 19 coorganiser, Zurin. “The idea of [The Mag 8] came from Garage Space (previously Garage Studio), located in Ampang Hilir, where it was specifically [a place for] local indie bands to perform and gain experience, as well as promoting their band before [they went] to the next level,” Megat said. “At first, it was just a concept for a collaboration, and before I took over, metal was the chosen genre. Only a few shows had been produced at the time. “When I was assigned to handle the event, I was asked to find some Malaysian underground music is a thriving subculture among local youth that has recently received a lot of attention. – THEMAG8 oThe Magnificent 8 musical gigs display tremendous performances by local singers and musicians at venues around the city █ BY HAZIQUE ZAIRILL Unlike earlier series, Vol 19 emphasised hiphop rather than punk, rock, and metal. –THEMAG8 The event has given local indie bands, musicians, and singers a chance to promote themselves and grow independently. – HAZIQUE ZAIRILL/THESUN The Magnificent 8 musical performances allow young people to express themselves through music. – HAZIQUE ZAIRILL/THESUN fresh, up-and-coming bands to play at the gig, and this time it could be [a genre] other than metal.” Megat added: “So I looked for them on various social media sites, including Twitter, Instagram, and others. Thankfully, this led to a lot of positive feedback, and many bands have since contacted me to request to play the gig.” Meanwhile, co-organiser Zurin’s perspective was slightly different, given that it was her first time handling and assisting the Vol 18 event, as well as being given the task to host the entire evening. Zurin explained: “My first gig experience saw people go wild, mosh and rage, yet they were still within the limit because there was no alcohol or drugs involved. And I noticed that most people had negative misconceptions about these local independent musicians.” “Hence, I suddenly felt compelled to help these people by organising more gigs in the future. I teamed up with my friend @tutythecengkih, and she helped me a lot during the process. “And of course, seeing other people happy makes me happy too.” The growing underground scene appears to have caught the attention of more and more young people these days, considering they are able to convey thoughts and feelings through the form of music. The recent Vol 19 gig series received a positive response from the aidience, which is extremely encouraging for The Mag 8 as it continues its efforts to improve. Even though the venue had to be changed at the last minute due to a problem that arose during the previous series (Vol 18), Migos Garage proved to be an excellent replacement, as it was able to provide lighting and décor that suited the hiphop and punk atmosphere of the evening, which made it more interesting. As the event progressed, Zurin shared the true meaning and objective of these shows, as well as the potential benefits that these types of activities could bring about. “This kind of gig is important because I believe that some Malaysian works of art are underappreciated,” Zurin said. “There is a lack of artistic sensibility, poetic lyricism, and grunge sound in the current music industry, so I believe you will only experience it at shows like this. And it would be unfair to ignore these independent underground artistes, as each possesses great potential and a unique style.” “Nonetheless, only with these types of gigs would they have the opportunity to literally conquer the stage, gain experience performing in front of modest crowds, and learn what it’s like to be an entertainer. “Therefore, local gigs like this should be continued and promoted. It really makes me happy to see how hard work and effort have paid off.” With the series of shows having received a lot of praise among the indie community, Megat revealed that his dream was to organise a large-scale music festival with a space for vendors and food trucks, so that attendees could enjoy music while also supporting local businesses. He said: “Isn’t it incredible that these local indie bands have the chance to perform in front of hundreds or thousands of people? That might accelerate their growth while also giving chances to other local businesses. “I already have a group of friends and a team that is prepared to commit. I have complete support, including the venue, but there are still some issues here. Perhaps I need more time, and I hope it will happen one day.” The Mag 8 is expected to continue its journey, with Megat promising it will conclude the gigs series for this year with Vol 39. Meanwhile Vols 20 and 21 already planned, and fans of underground music may keep an eye out on the Instagram hashtag #themagnificent8 for more information.
17 ENTERTAINMENT theSun LYFE ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 @thesundaily FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM SCAN ME A NEW Korean drama called Hate To Love You was recently released on Netflix. Mi-ran (Kim Ok-bin), a young attorney who tries her best to not lose to a man, is the focus of the story. Kang-ho (Teo Yoo) is a well-known actor who has a phoney reputation for benevolence and who is constantly dubious of women. The story’s narrative centres on how the guy who always avoids women and the girl with a secret talent for martial arts get up in a contractual relationship by happenstance. Hate to Love You successfully built up an enemies-to-lovers situation in this series. I was a bit concerned that the plot would not be compelling enough, because – as we all know – the scenario is a little overused in the Korean drama industry, but thankfully it was completely the opposite of what I had anticipated. The lead characters are excellently written, and they all go through similar experiences after developing misgivings about the opposite gender. As played by Ok-bin, Mi-ran is brave, attractive, and makes an effort to draw attention to the discrimination that exists between men and women in the entertainment world. She did a fantastic job portraying Miran’s confident side. She has a tenacity and a good energy about her that shines through. She has a yearning for equality and an honest control over herself. Teo Yoo did justice to his role as well. His cool demeanour in this series is another reason why you shouldn’t miss it, in addition to the fact of his stunning looks. Admittedly, the narrative is not very unique or unpredictable. Halfway through the series, it starts to drag a bit. The romance, though, makes up for all the terrible story aspects, and might make all the singles wish they were in a relationship You’ll be shocked by the suspense, the kissing sequences, and the fleeting eye contact. And it was easy to watch because it is relatively laid back. The script’s unique humour also kept me watching till the very end. The relationship between Kang-ho and his close buddy and manager Do Won-jun (played by Kim Ji-hoon) is also quite amusing to watch. Won-jun’s oHate To Love You is worth watching thanks to the entertaining cast and storyline Hate To Love You is a new romantic comedy drama streaming on Netflix. Kim Ok-bin plays a bold and strong female lead in this series. Teo Yoo and Kim Ji-hoon’s bromance was super entertaining and managed to captivate the hearts of viewers. Viewers are swooning over the second lead couple of Hate To Love You. █ BY THASHINE SELVAKUMARAN Enemies-to-lovers interactions with Mi-ran’s closest friend Na-eun (played by Go Won-hee), also made them a strong romantic pair. I really liked their side story, and I think the pair has great chemistry. My heart would race every time I saw them on screen together. Overall, if you enjoy rom-coms, you should add this one to your watch list. Although it might feel a little bland in the middle of the series, things pick up as the story loves along. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing the entire series in one sitting again. Hate To Love You is now streaming on Netflix. 0Cast: Kim Ok-bin, Teo-yoo, Kim Ji-hoon, Go Won-hee 0Director: Kim Jung- Kwon E-VALUE 8 ACTING 8 PLOT 8 EXPANDING off the back of the widely successful pre-pandemic inaugural edition in 2019 through Universal Music Singapore, Universal Music Malaysia extended its series at Le Méridien Petaling Jaya. Drawing over 500 fans, the event shone a spotlight on local superstars such as Bella Astillah, Insomniacks and Yonnyboii, along with crossover artiste Zack Tabudlo from The Philippines. The eclectic lineup spanned a compelling mix of genres from pop to alternative pop. The Las Piñas-native hero, Zack Tabudlo captivated the Malaysian audience with his larger-than-life performance. Performing SEA crossover tracks such as Pano and a duet with Malaysia’s hip hop artiste, Yonnyboii on their track Take Me Back drew forth the same energetic feeling of his solo shows. Tabudlo said: “To be in Kuala Lumpur and share the stage with some of its upcoming stars is really exciting to me. “Being able to experience the city through witnessing its people hyping their favourite local artistes and learning about the different cultures will be unforgettable.” Alongside Tabudlo, Malaysia’s rising stars Bella Astillah, Insomniacks and Yonnyboii performed their crowd-favourite and awardwinning tracks along with newer releases. which had the entire concourse area filled with so many sing-along moments. Said Bella Astilliah: “I’m forever thankful to my fans who always show their massive support for my songs and always engage with me during my performance. It will always mean a lot to me”. The audience were thoroughly entertained by Insomniacks top hits such as Sempurna and Igauan Malam, which have earned several nominations plus recognition in some of Malaysia’s prominent award shows. Malaysia’s favourite young gun, Yonnyboii also presented a highly energetic performance and ensured he left his stamp with his trademark raw vocals. “To share the stage with artistes who I consider as friends and to perform to a wider audience while still performing to my fans is truly a great experience,” he said. “It’s unreal to see so many people show up and put on a great show like [this one].” Zack Tabudlo wowed the crowd with hits such as Pano and Take Me Back . Insomniacks doing what they do best. The performers ended the evening with a group photo with the audience. Back in the groove ALL PIX BY INSTAGRAM/@NETFLIXKR
18 TECH theSun LYFE ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 DIY smartphone repair HMD GLOBAL, the Finnish manufacturer that has been operating the Nokia commercial brand for several years, has announced a partnership with iFixit. The very first model concerned by this agreement will be the G22. This entry-level device has just been presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and should be released in the spring. The main replaceable components of the Nokia G22 will soon be available on the iFixit website, including the screen (€49.95/ RM239.31), the battery (€24.95/ RM119.54) or the charging port (€19.95/ RM95.58). Customers will then have the choice to buy the spare parts alone or with an accompanying tool kit. To facilitate the repair process, tutorials will also be available on the iFixit website. Nokia joins Samsung, Google and Motorola on the list of brands already working with iFixit. This service avoids users having to systematically change their smartphone when the slightest problem arises. Note that while some iFixit kits are available for older iPhones, Apple now has its own online repair service, called Self Service Repair. This allows you to order tools and spare parts to repair your iPhone 12 or 13 yourself. – ETX Studio The Nokia G22 is the latest smartphone model to benefit from repair kits. – HMD GLOBAL Carving out a niche market SOME 14.2 million folding smartphones were sold throughout the world in 2022, according to figures from Canalys published by the Financial Times. The vast majority of them are Samsung models. Canalys estimates that just under 1.2 billion smartphones were sold in 2022 around the world, which represents a 17% decrease from 2021. This means that only a little more than 1% of sales involved a folding smartphone. Unsurprisingly, Samsung dominates the sector, with nearly 12 million units sold, or almost 85% of the market. The brand’s latest models, the Galaxy Z Fold4 and Z Flip4, are available almost everywhere in the world, unlike some of its competitors’ models, which are sold exclusively in China. And so, far behind Samsung, Huawei sold a little less than 2 million folding smartphones in 2022, compared to a few hundred thousand for Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor. This segment will likely remain niche for a few more years since, despite a steady increase in sales year after year, the market share of folding phones is projected to remain below 2%, at least until 2025 according to Canalys. – ETX Studio Samsung is a pioneer in the folding smartphone segment. – SAMSUNG FROM connected collars and GPS trackers to health and wellness applications, the “pet tech” market has been booming in recent years. But these technological marvels raise questions about pet owners’ privacy, according to a recent British study. Computer science experts from Newcastle University and Royal Holloway, University of London have examined the security of some 40 applications, available on Android, dedicated to pets and animals. They offer pet owners a multitude of services that are supposed to help them in their daily lives, such as tracking the whereabouts of their four-legged friend on their smartphone. But this peace of mind often comes at the expense of their personal data. Indeed, the researchers noted that most of these apps pose cybersecurity risks to pet owners. In their paper, available via the IEEE Xplore platform, the researchers explain that connection data and user location are sometimes recorded without encryption. They are therefore vulnerable to being stolen by hackers. Most apps aimed at pet owners also lack transparency about their privacy policies. Thus, 21 of the 40 apps analysed by the British researchers collect personal data on their users without their consent, which is a violation of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protecting EU citizens’ personal data. Caution should therefore be exercised when it comes to animal applications, according to Scott Harper, a PhD student at Newcastle University, and lead author of the study. “While owners might use these apps for peace of mind about the health of their dog or where their cat is, they may not be happy to find out about the risks the apps hold for their own cybersecurity,“ he said in a statement. “We would urge anyone using these apps to take the time to ensure they are using a unique password, check the settings and ensure that they consider how much data they are sharing or willing to share.” – ETX Studio Many apps aimed at pet owners lack transparency about their privacy policies. – GETTY oPet-friendly apps raise questions about pet owners’ privacy Pet-tech security risk? Lightning fast charging Xiaomi has demonstrated that it is now technically possible to fully charge a smartphone in less than 5 minutes. – XIAOMI without safety concerns. That’s why Xiaomi plans to integrate about 50 special features specifically designed to monitor the voltage or temperature of the device and thus prevent any risk of dangerous overheating. Also according to Xiaomi, a future ultrapowerful charger won’t necessarily be bigger Log in to Twitter with no SMS code TWITTER recently announced the end of free two-factor authentication, which works by sending users a secret, temporary code via SMS. Fortunately, there’s another free solution available to help protect your Twitter account from hackers. As of March 20, 2023, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use two-factor authentication via SMS to log in to their favorite social network. This type of authentication is a must to help prevent your account getting hacked. Fortunately, Twitter users still have the option of using a mobile authentication application to receive a verification code to enter each time they log in. This is the easiest alternative, even if it requires installing a separate application, like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. Then, go to the settings of your Twitter account, head to the security section and then to two-factor authentication. To be able to sign in via an authentication application, you’ll first be asked to link this service to your Twitter account, simply by scanning a QR code. Once this first code is validated, you will then have to open your authentication application each time you connect to Twitter to get your six-digit validation code. Note that this code is automatically renewed every 30 seconds, for security reasons. In addition to Twitter, this two-factor authentication method also works with most online networks and services. – ETX Studio There are several ways to use two-factor authentication to log in to Twitter. COMPETITION among Chinese manufacturers is heating up in the race for the fastest charging. Xiaomi now takes the lead ahead of Realme, Vivo and OnePlus with this 300W charger prototype capable of fully charging a smartphone in just under five minutes. This feat was achieved on a modified Redmi Note 12 Pro+, exceptionally equipped with a 4,100mAh battery. However, such power doesn’t come than today’s 210W charging standard, available for the Redmi Note 12. This model currently has the fastestcharging capabilities on the market, at just nine minutes. The upcoming Realme GT Neo 5 is expected to do at least as well with its 240W charger. In this area, Chinese manufacturers are far ahead of Samsung and Apple, who still favour 45W and 30W chargers respectively. However, there can be good reasons for such choices, given that the more powerful a charge is, the more the battery’s life and number of charge cycles are affected. While this new fast-charging technology is very exciting on paper, it nevertheless carries a risk, that of degrading the battery of one’s smartphone more quickly. – ETX Studio
19 WELLNESS theSun LYFE ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 Link between heart rate and anxiety EMOTIONS, such as fear and anxiety, can make the heart beat faster. A study conducted on mice by researchers at Stanford University in California found that the reverse was also possible. The results, published in the journal Nature, show that a faster heart rate generates anxiety in the body. This study addresses a question that has puzzled the medical profession for more than a century: do physical sensations follow emotion or vice versa? To test the phenomenon, the team of American researchers turned to optogenetics, a method that uses light to control cellular activity. The scientists created a tiny vest that incorporated a red light directed at the chest of the mice. When a mouse’s vest emits a pulse of light, the animal’s heart muscles fired, making the heart beat. The team trained the animals to expect to receive a shock when they pressed a lever for a water reward. Using optogenetics, the scientists artificially accelerated the mice’s heart rate from 660 beats per minute to 900. At this point, the rodents no longer have the reflex to press the lever or find other alternatives, which results in them exhibiting signs of anxious behavior. On the other hand, when the mice did not perceive any danger in the context, the increased heart rate had no influence on them. The researchers theorised that the brain and heart actually work together to produce anxiety. By measuring the brain activity of the mice, the researchers found that the insula, a part of the brain associated with emotions and body signals, became more active when the heart rate increased, particularly in a state of anxiety. The researchers deduce that the insula becomes an intermediary between the heart and the brain in moments of anxiety. It puts together signals from the heart reacting with environmental threats before transmitting the information to the areas involved in higher cognition. The insular cortex “is known to be involved in interoception – the ability to perceive the body’s internal states, including heart rate, hunger, temperature and pain,” the study authors explain. “The insular cortex receives receives all kinds of information from all across the body, so it could be playing a general role across a broad range of emotional states,” outlined Dr Karl Deisseroth, professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and senior author of the study. This discovery could contribute to a rethinking of treatment methods for chronic anxiety disorders. The team of researchers now intends to retest the system in order to analyse the links between the human brain and other organs, such as the intestines and facial muscles. – ETX Studio It can be hard to pinpoint the origin of an anxious feeling. – 123RF Sleep well, stay healthy DID you know that sleep takes up between a third and a half of a human’s entire life span? When it comes to mental peace, nothing on earth can match sleep. We all cherish a restful night’s sleep after a long, exhausting day. Sleep is an essential component of human life because it is a complex biological process that enables us to process new information, maintain our health, and replenish our energy. In simple terms, sleep serves as a daily recharge for humans. As a result, sleep is important for both physical and mental health. Lack of rest and sleep can increase health risks, developing serious medical conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In fact, poor sleeping habits may also lead to reduced immunity, allowing an increase in the chance of disease and infection. The National Institutes of Health states that “Sleep services all aspects of our body in one way or another: molecular, energy balance, as well as intellectual function, alertness, and mood.” It turns out that sleep plays a significant role in maintaining our health. Simply put, you cannot afford to ignore this issue. As a result, good sleeping habits are required for humans to get a good night’s sleep. Below are some of the tips and good sleeping habits that can improve your sleep health: 0 Maintain a sleeping schedule You can improve the quality of your sleep by keeping a regular bedtime and synchronising it with your body’s natural circadian rhythm. Put yourself to bed and wake up at the same times every day, including weekends. Similar to regular exercise and a balanced diet, getting a good night’s sleep is crucial. – 123RF oThese simple tips will help you sleep better and be more energetic and productive during the day █ BYHAZIQUE ZAIRILL By putting the following advice to use, you can enhance your sleep, your health, and how you feel and think during the day. – 123RF Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, relaxing, and at a comfortable temperature. – IKEA If you’re getting enough rest, you shouldn’t need an alarm to wake up. If you require an alarm clock, your bedtime may need to be adjusted. Also, sleeping time shouldn’t exceed eight hours. Adults in good health are advised to get at least seven hours of sleep each night. The objective is to maintain consistency. 0 Improve sleep environment Your brain should receive a strong signal that it is time to unwind and let go of the day’s stresses from a relaxing bedtime routine. Your ability to sleep well can sometimes be greatly affected by even minor changes to your environment. The key is to maintain your room cool, dark, quiet, and relaxing. Light exposure during the night could cause falling asleep more difficult. Avoid using light-emitting screens for an extended period of time right before going to bed. So, do turn off all electronic devices, such as TVs, computers, and smartphones an hour before bedtime. Set the right temperature as it plays an important role too. Most people sleep best in a slightly cool room with adequate ventilation, ranging from 18°C to 24°C. A hot or cold bedroom can disrupt quality sleep. 0 Exercise during the day Do some physical activities such as light exercise. Being active during the day can make it easier for you to sleep at night. Regular exercise also reduces the symptoms of insomnia and sleep apnea and increases the amount of time spent in the deep, restorative stages of sleep. If you exercise in the morning or the afternoon, this won’t be a problem, but exercising too close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep. Try to complete a moderate-to-vigorous workout at least three hours before going to bed. Move your workouts even earlier if you’re still having trouble falling asleep. The evening hours can be used to promote sleep by engaging in calming, low-impact activities like yoga or gentle stretching. 0 Be smart about what you eat and drink Avoid large meals, caffeine, and alcohol before bedtime. It’s your overall eating patterns rather than specific foods that can make the biggest difference to your quality of sleep, as well as your overall health. Your daytime eating habits play a role in how well you sleep, especially in the hours before bedtime. Don’t go to bed hungry or stuffed. In particular, avoid heavy or large meals within a couple of hours of bedtime. Nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol deserve caution, too. The stimulating effects of nicotine and caffeine take hours to wear off and can interfere with sleep. 0 Track your sleep Keeping track of your bedtime and wake-up times will allow you to analyse them and make a change for quality sleep time. Keep track of how long you anticipate it will take you to fall asleep or how frequently you wake up during the night. You may get all those information if you are using a smartwatch, as nowadays most of them include a sleep tracker and analysis. Once you have a general sense of how many hours of sleep you’re receiving each night, you can adjust your bedtime accordingly. However, if you don’t have one, you can also use the oldfashioned method of writing them down in a notebook.
20 FEATURE theSun LYFE ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 /thesuntelegram FOLLOW ON TELEGRAM SCAN ME L Bringing on the heartache AST autumn, Nora Ephron’s go-to vinaigrette recipe became a major player in a celebrity scandal. In an interview with the Daily Mail (which was subsequently taken down), the former nanny of ex-couple Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis conjured an indelible scene. Wilde, the nanny claimed, had been mixing up her “special salad dressing” in their kitchen – but when Sudeikis learnt that the dressing was intended for Harry Styles (who was to become, for a while, Wilde’s boyfriend), he was outraged. In a desperate bid to stop the dressing from reaching Styles, Sudeikis purportedly “lay under her car” to stop her driving away from him and their kids. “Took her salad and dressing and left them,” was what the nanny then claimed Sudeikis texted her. Both he and Wilde vehemently denied all this. What made this dressing so “special”? Two tablespoons of Grey Poupon mustard, the same amount of good red wine vinegar, then six tablespoons of olive oil – and a soupçon of delicious literary context. Because, as became apparent when Wilde shared the ingredients on Instagram, the recipe in question was taken from the closing pages of Heartburn, Ephron’s 1983 novel. The screenwriter and director behind films like You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle might, you imagine, have sympathised with Sudeikis’s (alleged) reaction. After all, as protagonist Rachel Samstat says at the start of the book, “you don’t just bump into vinaigrettes that good”. Heartburn, which turned 40 on March 9, remains one of the definitive literary renderings of a messy breakup. Just shy of 200 pages, and alternately breezy, barbed and bittersweet in tone, it chronicles the fallout as Rachel discovers that her husband Mark, a Washington political commentator, is having an affair with “a fairly tall person with a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb” – while Rachel is pregnant with the couple’s second child. The drama spilled onto the page from real life. Heartburn has been described as “thinly disguised” autobiography, and it’s a phrase that the author herself had “no real quarrel with” (beyond noting that those words are “applied mostly to books written by women”). Rachel, a wisecracking food journalist, is undisputedly an Ephron surrogate (albeit “considerably more composed than I was at the time”). Mark, meanwhile, is based on Carl Bernstein, the star reporter who broke the Watergate scandal, and Ephron’s second husband. “I knew the moment my marriage ended that someday it might make a book – if I could just stop crying,” she later reflected – proof that her famous The late Ephron has been enjoying a revival among younger readers. – THE INDEPENDENT oHow the personal drama Heartburn turned author Nora Ephron into the poster girl for millennial writers Ephron in 2009. – THE INDEPENDENT “everything is copy” mantra was always ticking away at the back of her mind. She would later turn the novel into a screenplay, resulting in the 1986 film adaptation directed by Mike Nichols, with Meryl Streep playing Rachel and Jack Nicholson as Mark (Bernstein was allowed to read the script and watch the first cut, thanks to a clause in their divorce). “I highly recommend having Meryl Streep play you,” Ephron was to declare in a 2009 tribute to Heartburn’s star. The significance of this IRL acrimony is unlikely to have been lost on Wilde. That the Heartburn vinaigrette, one of a handful of recipes peppered into the narrative, “went viral on every social media platform” almost four decades after the novel’s publication “speaks to the legacy that Nora has”, says journalist Ilana Kaplan, who is working on a book about Ephron. As editorial director for Virago Modern Classics, Donna Coonan has published four editions of Heartburn so far. “It is a book that endures because it is brave and funny, because it offers hope in unlikely circ*mstances, and that has something to say at every age you read it,” she says. She and Kaplan are not alone in welcomed her with open arms, claiming her as their own. They care less about the biographical resonances, more about Ephron’s “truth-telling”, valuing “her emotional honesty, rather than the real-life parallels”, as Coonan puts it. Heartburn’s “truth-telling” is couched in a voice that is both intimate and piercingly sharp, welcoming you in as it observes others at an ironic distance. It is boldly decisive, almost aphoristic at points, qualities that flavoured all her writing, from screenplays to personal essays. “What Nora lacked in resumé, she more than compensated for in decisiveness,” her friend Richard Cohen wrote. “It could be as good as wisdom.” Reading Ephron sometimes feels like being drawn into a fantasy of confidence, in all senses – of closeness, yes, but also of having the stridency to say whatever you want. Hers is a conviction that’s almost certainly rooted in a privileged life as the daughter of two successful Hollywood screenwriters. Lines such as the much-cited “never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from” (which appears in essay collection I Feel Bad About My Neck) have a clever symmetry to them, one that feels deceptively simple. It is easy to fall for her style, but much harder to pull it off yourself. The label of “the new Nora Ephron” is a useful one for publishers, but few of them balance the content (relatable heartbreak, selfdeprecation, a fondness for potatoes of all forms) with the form. Kaplan reckons “there are elements of her humour, her candour and the frank way she talks about female friendships and marriage in other writers”, but she “just can’t” pinpoint someone who has crafted a similar voice. Coonan, meanwhile, says she “see[s] glimmers of [Ephron] in writing that acknowledges the bittersweetness of life, that doesn’t shy away from the tragedy, but makes you laugh anyway … I nodded in acknowledgement to Nora when I watched Fleabag by Phoebe WallerBridge and read Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason”. Ephron’s writing does have some uncomfortably sharp edges. There are certain passages in Heartburn that will land with a thud in 2023 – like the dated, casually racist references to black and Latinx characters. And there are sometimes touches of cruelty in her descriptions, which, according to a New York magazine piece published around Heartburn’s release, at least, could crop up in her real-life conversations too. “When her name comes up” in literary circles, journalist Jesse Kornbluth wrote, “you are much more likely to hear it from someone who has been the target of one of her barbs”. The author herself was spiky, imperfect, like many of her creations – and yet sometimes we risk sanctifying her in a way that robs her of these edges. Since her death, “a writer of tart, acidic observation has been turned into an influencer, revered for her aesthetic, and her for arsenal of lifestyle tips”, Rachel Syme observed in The New Yorker last year. And as writer Ella Risbridger noted in an episode of the podcast Sentimental Garbage, she has become almost aspirational, “a signifier of who people want to be … Liking Nora Ephron is a kind of cultural marker for a certain kind of woman”. – The Independent A scene from Heartburn featuring Streep (on left) and Nicholson. – PARAMOUNT PICTURES their love of Ephron’s work. In the decades since its release, Heartburn has been pressed into the hands of countless new readers by their commiserating pals, as a funny, vindicating emergency manual for heartbreak. “I’ve given Heartburn to more friends than any other book,” Coonan adds. “For break-ups, for comfort, and just because Nora has a voice I have to share.” Many of us are introduced to Heartburn during times of heightened emotion, when we’re feeling fragile, seeking escapism, in need of a reminder that life always goes on, as it does for Rachel (after she has thrown a key lime pie at her husband’s face, in a real “mic drop” moment, as Kaplan puts it). Perhaps that’s why Ephron’s book seems to have such a lasting impact. Coonan says she “first encountered it [after] I’d just been cheated on by my serious boyfriend – fittingly enough, a chef. Now I think the heartbreak was a fair trade for being able to make perfect spaghetti aglio olio e pepperoncino.” A sentiment worthy of Rachel (and her creator), surely. Ephron and her book weren’t always so beloved. Heartburn may have shot up the bestseller charts, buoyed by the glimpse it offered into the break-up of “the Brad and Jen of the early Eighties”, as writer Ariel Levy would brand them in a New Yorker profile, but reviews were mixed. One Vanity Fair columnist, writing pseudonymously, described it as an act of “indecent exploitation” tantamount to “child abuse”. It was cruel, the anonymous author reasoned, to create such a permanent and public record of marital discord, which her children might one day read. Many of her films, meanwhile, were commercially successful but critically middling, often derided as fluffy, guilty pleasures; some were outright flops. But in the decade or so since her death in 2012 at the age of 71, her work has been reappraised, reinforced by a raft of big-name recommendations. Nigella Lawson describes it as “the perfect bittersweet, sobbingly funny, all-too-true confessional novel”. Amy Poehler says she kept a copy of it beside her when working on her own memoir, “as a reminder of how to be funny and truthful” – but “all I ended up doing was ignoring my writing and reading Heartburn”. Her fellow comics Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling have also hailed Ephron’s influence, while Stanley Tucci has written the introduction for Heartburn’s new 40th anniversary edition, published by Virago last Thursday (the audiobook is read by Ephron’s pal Streep). A younger generation of millennial and Gen-Z fans, raised on the nostalgic near-past of When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail,
21 * SPORTS theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 DALAM MAHKAMAH TINGGI MALAYA DI KUALA LUMPUR (BAHAGIAN PERDAGANGAN) PETISYEN (PENGGULUNGAN) SYARIKAT NO.: WA-28NCC-140-02/2023 Dalam Perkara Seksyen 464, Seksyen 465(1)(e) dibaca bersama Seksyen 466(1)(a) Akta Syarikat 2016; Dan Dalam Perkara Kaedah-Kaedah (Penggulungan) Syarikat, 1972; Dan Dalam Perkara REAP SYNERGY SDN. BHD. (No. Syarikat: 201101039364 / 967486-W) ANTARA DASHSITI JAYA SDN. BHD. (No. Syarikat. : 201701012778 / 1226943-X) …PEMPETISYEN DAN REAP SYNERGY SDN. BHD. (No. Syarikat. : 201101039364 / 967486-W) …RESPONDEN NOTIS IKLAN PETISYEN NOTIS dengan ini adalah diberi bahawa satu Petisyen untuk menggulungkan Syarikat tersebut di Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur telah pada 15-02-2023 diperserahkan di Mahkamah oleh Dashsiti Jaya Sdn. Bhd. DAN Petisyen tersebut diarahkan untuk didengar oleh Mahkamah yang bersidang di Kuala Lumpur pada 19-09-2023 pukul 9.00 pagi dan mana-mana Pemiutang atau Pencarum Syarikat tersebut yang ingin menyokong atau membantah Perintah di dalam Petisyen itu boleh hadir pada waktu perbicaraan dengan sendirinya atau melalui peguamnya bagi tujuan tersebut dan sesalinan Petisyen akan diberikan pada mana-mana Pemiutang ataupun Pencarum Syarikat tersebut yang mengkehendakinya oleh penandatangan di bawah dengan membuat bayaran yang ditetapkan untuknya. Alamat Pempetisyen ialah di C1-305C, Lorong Perak, Melawati Square, Pusat Bandar Melawati, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan. Peguamcara Pempetisyen ialah Tetuan Roshan beralamat di Suite 7-01, Blok B, Tingkat 7, Kelana Square, 17, Jalan SS7/26, Kelana Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan. TETUAN ROSHAN NOTA-Sesiapa yang ingin hadir pada hari Pendengaran Petisyen mestilah menyerahkan pada ataupun melalui Pos kepada Tetuan Roshan secara bertulis niatnya untuk berbuat begitu. Notis tersebut mestilah menyatakan nama dan alamat orang tersebut atau jika ianya sebuah firma, nyatakan nama dan alamat firma itu dan mesti ditandatangani oleh orang tersebut atau firma tersebut atau penguamcaranya atau penguamcara mereka (jika ada) dan mestilah diserahkan ataupun jika diposkan mengikut tempoh supaya sampai kepada penama di atas tidak lewat dari pukul 12.00 tengahari pada 18-09-2023 (sebelum hari yang ditetapkan bagi pendengaran Petisyen tersebut). [(RS/CIVL/4/2/2023)] 322 Notices DALAM MAHKAMAH MAJISTRET DI KUALA KUBU BHARU DALAM NEGERI SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN, MALAYSIA GUAMAN SIVIL NO: BF-A72NCvC-264-12/2022 Antara MAJLIS PERBANDARAN HULU SELANGOR (dahulunya dikenali sebagai MAJLIS DAERAH HULU SELANGOR) ...PLAINTIF Dan HOW YOKE YING (NO. 500418-14-5014) …DEFENDAN NOTIS PENYAMPAIAN SECARA PENGIKLANAN Kepada, HOW YOKE YING No. K/P: 500418-14-5014 No. 20 Jalan Cheras Permai 3, Taman Cheras Permai 43200 Batu 9, Cheras Selangor HOW YOKE YING NO. K/P: 500418-14-5014 No. 41 Jalan Telipot 2A, Perniagaan Jalan Telipot, Bukit Sentosa 48300 Rawang Selangor AMBIL PERHATIAN bahawa suatu tindakan telah dimulakan terhadap kamu di Mahkamah Majistret Kuala Kubu Bharu dalam Guaman Sivil No. BF-A72NCvC-264-12/2022 oleh MAJLIS PERBANDARAN HULU SELANGOR (dahulunya dikenali sebagai MAJLIS DAERAH HULU SELANGOR) yang beralamat di Jalan Bukit Kerajaan, 44000 Kuala Kubu Bharu, Selangor Darul Ehsan dan Mahkamah ini telah memberi perintah bahawa Writ Saman bertarikh 23.12.2022 hendaklah dilaksanakan secara penyampaian ganti kepada Defendan dengan menampalkan satu salinan perintah ini pada papan kenyataan di Mahkamah Majistret, Kuala Kubu Bharu, menampalkan satu salinan perintah ini pada alamat terakhir Defendan yang diketahui dan juga secara menyiarkan sesalinan Notis Periklanan untuk sekali sahaja di suratkhabar tempatan dan bahawa penyampaian sedemikian hendaklah menjadi satu penyampaian yang sempurna dan cukup dalam tempoh empat belas (14) hari dari tarikh akhir penampalan dokumen tersebut dan pengiklanan notis tersebut mengikut yang mana lebih lewat. Jika kamu berhasrat untuk membela dalam tindakan tersebut kamu mestilah dalam masa empat belas (14) hari dari penampalan dan penyiaran pengiklanan ini, memfailkan Memorandum Kehadiran. Kegagalan kamu untuk berbuat demikian boleh menyebabkan Penghakiman Ingkar boleh diberikan terhadap kamu. Bertarikh pada 16 haribulan Mac 2023. t.t. ……………………… Peguamcara bagi pihak Plaintif Law Practice of K.A. Ramu Notis Penyampaian Secara Pengiklanan ini telah dikeluarkan oleh Law Practice of K. A. Ramu , Peguambela & Peguamcara, peguamcara bagi Plaintif yang dinamakan diatas dan yang mempunyai alamat penyampaiannya di 15-1-A Jalan MH3, Taman Muzaffar Heights, 75450 Ayer Keroh, Melaka Tel: 03-76665625 Ruj:KARV/LIT/MDHS(HYY)/1506/2020 Email :[emailprotected] 322 Notices IN THE HIGH COURT OF MALAYA AT KUALA LUMPUR IN THE STATE OF WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN KUALA LUMPUR (COMMERCIAL DIVISION) COMPANIES (WINDING-UP) PETITION NO.: WA-28NCC-5-01/2023 In the matter of Section 465 (1) (e) and 466 (1) (a) of the Companies Act 2016 And In the matter of REGAL OFFSHORE SDN BHD (Company No.: 200101026331 / 562089-M) BETWEEN FARVIEW SUPPLY SDN BHD (Company No.: 200201013182 / 580845-V) …PETITIONER AND REGAL OFFSHORE SDN BHD (Company No.: 200101026331 / 562089-M) …RESPONDENT ADVERTIsem*nT OF PETITION NOTICE is hereby given that a Petition for the Winding-Up of the abovenamed company by the High Court was, on the 03-01-2023 presented by Farview Suppy Sdn Bhd (Company No.: 200201013182 / 580845-V) AND that the said Petition is directed to be heard at the High Court at Kuala Lumpur at 9.00 o’clock in the forenoon, on Wednesday, 16-08-2023, and any creditor or contributory of the said company desiring to support or oppose the making of an order on the said Petition may appear at the time of the hearing by himself or his counsel for that purpose; and a copy of the Petition will be furnished to any creditor or contributory of the said company requiring the same by the undersigned on payment of the regulated charges for the same. The Petitioner’s registered address is at No. 7-1, Jalan 109F, Plaza Danau 2, Taman Danau Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur Wilayah Persekutuan and its business address is at Lot 4613, Jalan Jakar, Kawasan Perindustrian Jakar 1, P.O. Box 48 Chukai, 24000 Kemaman Terengganu. The Petitioner’s Solicitors are Messrs. Lee Wong & Co, Advocates & Solicitors of 28, Jalan 19/13, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan. SGD. MESSRS. LEE WONG & CO ........................... SOLICITORS FOR THE PETITIONER NOTE: - Any person who intends to appear on the hearing of the said Petition must serve on or send by post to the abovenamed Solicitors, notice in writing of his intention so to do. The notice must state the name and address of the person, or if a firm, the name and address of the firm and must be signed by the person or firm, or his or their Solicitors (if any) and must be served, or, if posted, must be sent by post in sufficient time to reach the abovenamed Solicitors not later than twelve o’ clock noon of the 15-08-2023 (the day before the day appointed for the hearing of the petition). This ADVERTIsem*nT OF PETITION is filed by Messrs Lee Wong & Co, solicitors for the Petitioner abovenamed whose address for service is at 28, Jalan 19/13, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-7957 8300 Fax No: 03-7957 6300 Email: [emailprotected] [Our ref: TW/L/22855/FSSB] 322 Notices 322 Notices 322 Notices Advertise with us & connect to our urban readers. KLANG VALLEY PENANG | KEDAH PERAK | PERLIS PAHANG | KELANTAN TERENGGANU MS. Shoba TEL: 03-7784 8888 FAX: 03-7784 4424 MALACCA MR. Rajah TEL: 012-628 2844 FAX: 06-764 2051 JOHOR BAHRU MS. Anne Lim TEL: 013-770 6699 FAX: 07-355 5549 Alcaraz sails into quarterfinals … as Draper retires in Indian Wells TOP SEED Carlos Alcaraz reached the Indian Wells quarterfinals yesterday as Britain’s Jack Draper retired from their fourth-round match with an injury to his right side. Spain’s Alcaraz, who can return to No. 1 in the world with a third ATP Masters 1000 title this week, led 6-2, 2-0 when Draper, who had been treated by a physio, called a halt after 46 minutes on court. “This is not the way anybody wants to win a match, because something is wrong,” Alcaraz said. “All I can say is I hope to see him get well soon.” Alcaraz, 19, became the youngest men’s world No. 1 ever last year after his precocious US Open triumph. But after an abdominal injury hindered him late last year and a leg injury forced him to miss the Australian Open he has slipped behind Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic. Djokovic is absent this week as he is prohibited from entering the United States because he declined to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Alcaraz said he’s focused on winning a first Indian Wells title, and will let the ranking take care of itself. He returned to action last month with a victory in Buenos Aires and a runner-up finish in Rio de Janeiro – where he suffered a strained hamstring that prompted him to pull out of Acapulco. He’s looked in fine form in Indian Wells, taking a 2-0 lead in the first set after escaping 0-40 in his opening service game. “I felt the ball really well,” Alcaraz said. “I’m really happy with that part. “I would say I returned well, I hit great shots. I finished the match with confidence in my shots, to come into the next round with more confidence.” Draper, his serve speed dropping and his movement slowed, was seen by the physio between sets and pulled the plug after winning just one point in the first two games of the second. It was a disappointing finish to the week for Draper, who beat childhood hero Andy Murry in the third round. – AFP T20 whitewash in Bangladesh an eye-opener, says England coach ENGLAND’S 3-0 defeat in their Twenty20 series in Bangladesh was a real “eye-opener” for the world champions, white-ball coach Matthew Mott said. Bangladesh secured a 16-run victory in Mirpur on Tuesday to complete the whitewash and Mott said England would have to learn from it. “We really wanted to finish well here. I think it’s been a fantastic tour in terms of what we’ve been up against, a very strong home team,” Mott said. “That one hurts. To finish the way we did will leave a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. It should act as a real eye-opener on where we need to improve.” England were short on batters for the series after Tom Abell and Will Jacks were forced to withdraw due to injuries, and Mott defended the decision to not call up replacements. “There was a realisation that we were probably better off investing in some batters here and putting them under pressure in these games. You only learn from your mistakes,” Mott added. “The opportunities they were given here will give them time to reflect and when we get into pressure situations in World Cups, I am confident that it will have been the right decision.” – Reuters WORLD NO. 1 Iga Swiatek continued her Indian Wells title defence with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Emma Raducanu yesterday to set up a quarterfinal against unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea. Swiatek came under pressure early in the opening set but some clean ballstriking helped her hold for a 3-2 lead after two tight service games. She raised her level further to break Raducanu in the next game before pulling away. Having wrapped up the first set when Raducanu sent a shot long from the baseline, Swiatek grabbed an early break in the second to heap the pressure on the Briton, whose unforced errors began to mount. Swiatek, bidding to become only the second female player to successfully defend the Indian Wells title after Martina Navratilova in 1990-91, raced to a 5-1 lead playing flawless tennis and running her opponent ragged. The US Open champion closed out the win when Raducanu struck the net on serve in a tame end to her fine run in the Southern California desert. Earlier in the day, Coco Gauff rallied from a break down in the final set to beat Swede Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 and reach the quarters for the first time. “Today, it was just a mental thing, staying in the match,” Gauff said. “I wasn’t playing my best in some moments and wasn’t serving as well as I’d like to, but I think my mentality kept me in today.” Next up for Gauff is a meeting with Belarusian second seed Aryna Sabalenka, who survived a second-set scare to beat 16th seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Elsewhere, seventh seed Maria Sakkari outlasted bigserving Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 Petra Kvitova saved four match points en route to a 6-2 3-6, 7-6(11) win over third-seeded American Jessica Pegula. – Agencies Swiatek powers past Raducanu Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after beating Tallon Griekspoor at the Indian Wells Open. – AFPPIX
22 theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 SPORTS 5610/2023 15/03/2023 (WED) 7172 5052 7962 1943 5495 9625 5008 6823 5498 8618 7653 7830 2235 5320 0134 3889 4168 4390 6781 6530 7414 5525 8698 20,046,335.58 7172 7172 7172 7962 7962 5052 7962 7962 5052 5052 7172 5052 236,579.97 7172 5052 7962 GOAT 85106 39678 9678 678 08684 7 8 0 3 995603 95603 5603 603 99560 9956 995 9 9 4,434,282.90 2,639,933.20 12 17 27 28 31 33 464,001.07 5 41 47 48 49 53 2 20 34 38 39 49 9 12,999,226.41 RM190,296 RM45,404 won on 12/03/2023 ! Toto 4D Jackpot 2 (i-System) Toto 4D Jackpot 2 678 257 + BOAR 140 769 + BOAR 957 629 + DOG Draw Date: 15/03/23 (Wed) Draw No: 5557/23 Venue: PERAK TURF CLUB 8257 0769 7629 4301 + 8161 7269 + 2949 2869 + 7378 8036 + 3983 9210 + 0197 8650 + 5447 8825 + 3878 2974 + 6151 7560 + 2144 0384 + 2599 RM10,842,247.10 8257 + 0769 0769 + 8257 8257 + 7629 7629 + 8257 0769 + 7629 7629 + 0769 RM237,821.60 RM1,918,335.70 RM1,076,527.70 RM1,986,754.20 264 301 818 161 227 269 722 949 822 869 237 378 458 036 283 983 429 210 160 197 148 650 175 447 718 825 563 878 082 974 326 151 377 560 982 144 020 384 452 599 257 769 629 RM1,050,778.30 257 + 769 + 629 769 + 629 + 257 257 + 629 + 769 629 + 257 + 769 769 + 257 + 629 629 + 769 + 257 Celebrate 1+3D Jackpot Anniversary Special (6/3 – 9/4/2023). Italian masterclass Inter Milan frustrate Porto to reach Champions League quarterfinals I NTER MILAN held off Porto in a gritty 0-0 draw yesterday to reach the Champions League quarterfinals, with a 1-0 aggregate triumph. The Italian side, three-time winners of this competition, progressed to the last eight for the first time since 2011. For the first time since 2006, both Inter and AC Milan have reached the quarterfinals. Clutching a one-goal advantage from Romelu Lukaku’s last 16 first leg late winner, Inter set up to frustrate at the Estadio do Dragao. Porto had the better of the game but only managed to test Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana on a few occasions and failed to make the last eight for the third time in their last five attempts. Their finest chances came in stoppage time at the end, when Mehdi Taremi and Marko Grujic both hit the woodwork and Marcano had an effort cleared off the line. “There are so many emotions right now, after so many years we are proud of this achievement,” Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu said. “We made some mistakes but we did a great job, it was very difficult but I congratulate the team for the great job.” Inter have faced criticism for their domestic form but Calhanoglu said this game provided a morale boost. “Anything can happen in the Champions League – this match restores motivation for us,” he added. “We did a great job, we didn’t score but we worked hard until the final whistle and we qualified.” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi, aiming to end a bad run of form away from home, started with Edin Dzeko and Lautaro Martinez up front, with first-leg match-winner Romelu Lukaku on the bench. Porto have a strong recent record against Italian sides, knocking out Juventus and Roma in recent years, but the Portuguese champions could not score against Inter in 180 minutes. They were unable to include veteran centreback Pepe, 40, in the squad, shorn of their captain at the last minute. Porto were also without Otavio, sent off at the San Siro, but Stephen Eustaquio stepped in for him and impressed. Matheus Uribe lashed a vicious strike just wide of Inter’s goal early on, while Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa made solid saves from Dzeko and Nicolo Barella. Sergio Conceicao’s side were in the ascendancy for much of the first half and only a fine sliding block by Federico Dimarco denied Evanilson. The hosts might have taken the lead just before the break but Eustaquio could not reach Brazilian winger Pepe’s tempting cross. Grujic tested Andre Onana with a low drive as Porto’s urgency rose, while Galeno also forced the Cameroon international into a save. Porto’s first clear chance of the game arrived deep in stoppage time, when Marcano’s effort was cleared off the line by Denzel Dumfries. The Portuguese side struck the woodwork twice in an agonising finale, with Onana pushing Taremi’s header onto the post, before Grujic nodded against the crossbar. “In the second half we were better, more possession and more opportunities – I still can’t believe the ball didn’t go in,” Grujic said. “The fans were supportive and it was good to see that they understood that we gave everything. We really wanted to win the game. “The Dragao atmosphere was spectacular and now we are very disappointed.” – AFP Schu on Hamilton’s mind as Merc ace ponders future MARTIN BRUNDLE has suggested that Lewis Hamilton will be talking to his father Anthony along with his management about his options in Formula One given Mercedes’ poor start to the season. One such option would be “doing a Michael Schumacher”, moving to another team like Ferrari and helping to rebuild their internal operations to become world champions again. A Mercedes title challenge in the near future appears unlikely with the Brackley-based outfit already needing to claw back over a second a lap to pacesetters Red Bull. Hamilton may struggle to achieve his elusive eighth world title if he remains with the team, and with his contract expiring at the end of the season the rumour mill has already started to go into overdrive. Now, Brundle has offered his thoughts suggesting that while there are numerous reasons to stay with Mercedes there may be a part of him that wants to “do a Schumacher”, something he will be contemplating in discussions with his father and management. The legendary German infamously left Benetton for Ferrari in 1996 bringing in the personnel and laying the foundations for the Prancing Horses to dominate F1 for five seasons between 2000 and 2004. “There are a lot of good reasons to stay at Mercedes,” Brundle told the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. “He just needs them to tell him how they’re going to sort this out. “But you know, Senna left McLaren to go to Williams, Schumacher went off to Ferrari and it took a long, long time, but he made that work. “So these great drivers are not scared of going somewhere and then galvanising and getting a lot of new people around them and making something happen. “I think there must be part of Lewis that thinks. I’d love to go to Ferrari and do a Michael Schumacher if I can’t win my eighth or ninth right now. Why don’t I go and have some fun there? “I’m sure these are all playing in his mind and he will be talking to his dad and his management team about where do we go from here and that will be exacerbated by the dismal performance in Bahrain”. – Express Newspapers Inter Milan's Francesco Acerbi (above) in action with FC Porto's Mehdi Taremi (below). – REUTERSPIX
23 * SPORTS theSUN ON THURSDAY | MARCH 16, 2023 /theSunMedia FOLLOW ON YOUTUBE SCAN ME Spotlight on drop zone Nine Premier League clubs separated by just five points after latest round of matches THE Premier League relegation race is shaping into one of the biggest scrambles in memory. Nine clubs are separated by just five points after the latest round of matches, with most having 12 left to play. Here’s a look at each of those clubs involved (note that Crystal Palace and Southampton played this morning). Crystal Palace – 12th, 27pts Palace have slipped to within striking distance of all their relegation rivals after failing to win a League game this year. Patrick Vieira’s side have won once and collected only eight points in 12 games since the World Cup break. Wolves – 13th, 27 pts Wolves were second-bottom when Julen Lopetegui took charge in November and four League wins lifted them clear of danger. But one win in five has left them four points above the bottom three, having played a game more than all their rivals bar Everton. Nottingham Forest – 14th, 26 pts A five-game winless run has seen Forest slip to within two points of the bottom three and their latest defeat at Tottenham coincided with wins for Bournemouth and Everton, while Leeds and Southampton also picked up a point. Everton – 15th, 25 pts Everton’s third 1-0 home win under Sean Dyche, against Brentford on Saturday, lifted them out of the drop zone, but they face Chelsea (away), Tottenham (home) and Manchester United (away) in their next three matches. Leicester – 16th, 24 pts The Foxes are in freefall after losing four straight League games. They were comfortably in midtable before the World Cup break, but have taken seven points from 11 games since – less than any other club since Boxing Day. West Ham – 17th, 24 pts David Moyes’ struggling side edged out of the bottom three on goal difference after Saturday’s home draw against Aston Villa, but were booed off at fulltime again after one League win in six. They have won only two of their nine League games this year. Bournemouth – 18th, 24 pts The Cherries’ 1-0 win against Liverpool was one of the shock results of the season and combined with their rivals dropping points lifted them off the foot of the table and helped throw the relegation battle wide open. Leeds – 19th, 23 pts Leeds clinched a vital point in Saturday’s draw against Brighton, but had dropped into the relegation places before kickoff after Everton’s win and it was not enough to lift them out. One victory in 13 League games fairly reflects their struggles this season. Southampton – 20th, 22 pts An unlikely goalless draw at Manchester United kept the Saints in touch with those above them despite slipping into bottom spot. Recent wins against Chelsea and Leicester have kept their heads above water. – The Independent Conte should leave Spurs now, says Sutton TOTTENHAM manager Antonio Conte has been told that he should leave Spurs immediately if he isn’t planning on staying at the club beyond the end of this season when his contract runs out. The club currently sit fourth in the league with only Champions League football to fight for. Speaking to the BBC, Chris Sutton argued that Conte should leave immediately if he doesn’t want to commit his long-term future to the club. “It’s better for all concerned if he goes now,” Sutton told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’m really confused what is going on at Spurs at the moment. “Conte really needs to commit one way or the other. If he says ‘I’m happy to sign for another year or two’ then Tottenham can move on, but it doesn’t look like he will,” he added. The Spurs manager won the Premier League in 2016/17 and has won Serie A with both Juventus and Inter Milan, but has had a difficult time at Spurs of late, with mixed results compounded by illness as he underwent gallbladder surgery. He has a one-year extension included within his contract, but it is looking increasingly unlikely that either side will want to activate it. Despite a win against Nottingham Forest at the weekend, a tepid performance at home to AC Milan in the Champions League signalled the end of Spurs’ trophy hunt this season. Sutton also highlighted the decision to play a weakened team against Sheffield United in the FA Cup, where they lost 1-0 at Bramall Lane. “I was at the Milan game, I thought their performance was really insipid,” he said. “The bigger issue among the fanbase was the FA Cup, now what are they playing for?” Conte was bullish after the defeat to Milan, pointing out that Spurs “have made a step forward” since last season and that Milan won Serie A last season. But Sutton disagrees, saying that they “have regressed from last season” and “have been massively inconsistent”. “They have been a massive disappointment this season,” said the former Blackburn striker and Premier League winner. “They do not get that brand of football under Conte so he needs to win trophies.” – The Independent Odegaard hailed as ‘best midfielder’ in EPL FORMER Liverpool captain Jamie Redknapp has named Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard as the Premier League’s top midfield player. Reflecting on Arsenal’s dominant win over Fulham at the weekend, Redknapp was speaking to Sky Sports alongside exChelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. “Normally you’d say Kevin De Bruyne is the best midfield player, not just in the Premier League but in the world,” said the ex-England international, before pointing out that De Bruyne is “not playing as many games as he’d like”. He added: “Odegaard does this thing which all great players possess; it’s like time stands still when he has the ball.” However, Hasselbaink was less keen to place Odegaard as being above the Belgian. The Arsenal captain currently has 10 goals and six assists in the League compared to De Bruyne’s four goals and 12 assists, something that Hasselbaink attributes to the two being different types of player. “He’s always got a solution. He doesn’t have as many assists as De Bruyne because he’s not that type of player. But the other things he does, he’s doing them so elegantly and so well.” Redknapp was keen to highlight Odegaard’s goalscoring ability after he scored the third goal at Craven Cottage. He emphasised “the calmness he possesses”, adding that Odegaard has “scored four or five goals like he did against Fulham, with that left foot”. He also highlighted the Norwegian’s importance in leading the Gunners, with Arteta naming him as captain in July of last year. “When he hasn’t got the ball he goes and presses it and it catches. He’s the captain, he’s the leader. He’s leading that team”. Arsenal’s win at the weekend means they remain five points clear of nearest challengers Manchester City, who beat Crystal Palace 1-0 with a late Haaland penalty at Selhurst Park. – The Independent █ MARK WALKER █ CHRIS WILSON Braut force ERLING HAALAND declared that his “super strength” is scoring goals after becoming only the third player to get five in a Champions League game. “It’s a big night. Firstly, I’m proud to play in this competition, I love it. Five goals. To win 7-0 is amazing. My super strength is scoring goals. Should I be honest? A lot of goals today, I didn’t think. I was just trying to get it into the back of the net. A lot of it is being quick in the mind and trying to put it where the goalkeeper is not.” Leipzig manager Marco Rose, who worked with Haaland at Borussia Dortmund last season, felt it was a special evening for the striker. He said: “He had a great night. He was so hungry and he scored goals with the foot, he scored goals with the head, he won second balls, he made deep runs. It looked really simple tonight. He took the ball from the referee. It means it was a special night for him in terms of scoring and congratulations to him.” Ramsey eyeing 100 caps AARON RAMSEY is focused on joining Wales’ 100-cap club after being appointed skipper a decade after the “hurt” of losing the captaincy. Ramsey has been given the armband ahead of Euro 2024 qualifiers against Croatia and Latvia, replacing Gareth Bale who retired from football in January having won a record 111 caps for the Wales men’s team. The 32-year-old has won 78 caps and Page says Ramsey joining long-time teammates Bale, Chris Gunter and Wayne Hennessey as Wales centurions is a motivation for the Nice midfielder to prolong his international career. “I think it could be a motivation for any player, you would want that milestone of getting to 100 caps,” Page said. “I’ve got a world-class footballer and I’m going to use him while I’ve got him. Can he play at the top, top level, two consecutive games in a week? Probably not, we will have to manage that.” CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST 16, 2ND LEG: Manchester City 7 (Haaland 22-pen, 24, 45+2, 53, 57, Gundogan 49, De Bruyne 90+2) RB Leipzig 0 (City win 8-1 on agg), FC Porto 0 Inter Milan 0 (Milan win 1-0 on agg). ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP: Blackpool 6 Queens Park Rangers 1, Millwall 2 Swansea 1, Rotherham 1 Preston 2, Watford 3 Birmingham 0, Wigan 1 Coventry 1, Middlesbrough 1 Stoke 1. Top 5 P W D L F A Pts Burnley 36 23 11 2 71 28 80 Sheffield Utd 36 20 7 9 56 32 67 Middles’boro 37 19 7 11 65 42 64 Luton Town 36 16 12 8 44 34 60 Millwall 37 17 9 11 48 39 60 SIDENETTING RESULTS & STANDINGS Odegaard
theSun is published and printed by Sun Media Corporation Sdn Bhd (221220-K) of Lot 6, Jalan 51/217, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-7784 6688 Fax: 03-7783 7435 • Tel (Editorial): 03-7784 6688 Fax: 03-7785 2624/5 Email: [emailprotected] • Tel (Advertising): 03-7784 8888 Fax: 03-7784 4424 Email: [emailprotected] There are so many emotions right now, after so many years we are proud of this achievement. We made some mistakes but we did a great job, it was very difficult but I congratulate the team for the great job. Anything can happen in the Champions League…” Inter Milan midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu QUOTE OF THE DAY THURSDAY • MARCH 16, 2023 FIFA approves 2026 World Cup format with record 104 matches THE 2026 World Cup will have 104 matches instead of the traditional 64 games due to the expanded format with 48 teams taking part, global football governing body FIFA said yesterday ahead of its Congress in Kigali, Rwanda. The 2026 edition, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, will be the first edition of the quadrennial tournament where 48 teams are taking part. The final will be held on July 19. The new format will also stick to drawing four teams in a group after a proposal for 16 groups of three was shot down over fears of collusion in the final group game. However, the number of groups will increase from eight to 12. The original plan for the 2026 edition had a total of 80 matches but the decision to increase the number of games to 104 was approved by FIFA’s council at a meeting yesterday. Traditionally the top two teams from each group advance to the last 16 but the 2026 edition will also have the eight best third-placed teams moving into the knockout round of 32. “The FIFA Council unanimously approved the proposed amendment to the FIFA World Cup 2026 competition format,” FIFA said. “The revised format mitigates the risk of collusion and ensures that all the teams play a minimum of three matches, while providing balanced rest time between competing teams.” The 32-team World Cup in Qatar last year had a total of 64 matches completed in 29 days. The last time Mexico (1986) and the United States (1994) hosted a World Cup, there were only 24 teams. The tournament has had 32 teams since the 1998 edition, with eight groups of four and the finalists playing seven games each. But teams reaching the summit clash in 2026 will now play eight matches in total. FIFA said a 32-team Club World Cup will be played every four years from June 2025, confirming the announcement made by its president Gianni Infantino in Qatar last year. Confederation champions from 2021-2024 will be eligible to play in the new Club World Cup, which means Chelsea and Real Madrid have already qualified. Should either club win the Champions League again, a club ranking calculation based on sporting criteria will be used to determine which other team will qualify. The current version of the FIFA Club World Cup – an annual competition with seven teams – will be discontinued after 2023, with a new yearly club competition approved from 2024. “This competition will feature the champions of the premier club competitions of all confederations and conclude with a final to be played at a neutral venue, between the winner of the Champions League and the winner of intercontinental playoffs between the other confederations,” FIFA said. FIFA said clubs will have to release players for the World Cup from May 25, 2026 unless they are in a major final – such as the Champions League showpiece – for which clubs will have until May 30 to allow players to join their national teams. “With 56 days, the total combined number of rest, release and tournament days remain identical to the 2010, 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cup editions,” FIFA added. The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) said they were worried about “physical fatigue and mental burnout” due to the congested schedule with its CEO Maheta Molango saying the football calendar needs a “complete reset”. “The expanded World Cup format being announced for 2026 means that, yet again, more games are being forced into an already overcrowded schedule,” he said. “We know that the current workload players face is having an ongoing impact on their wellbeing… We can’t simply push them until they break.” – Reuters Picture combo showing Man City’s Erling Haaland’s five goals during yesterday’s Champions League last16, 2nd leg match against RB Leipzig at the Etihad. He broke the club record for most goals in a season (39), held by Tommy Johnson with 38 goals in 1928-29. – REUTERSPIX Professional redator S OME records last forever. Some last a mere 94 years. Since Tommy Johnson scored 38 times in 1928-29, no one in a Manchester City shirt had matched him. Until, with up to 19 games and perhaps almost three months of his season remaining, Erling Haaland surged past him in an extraordinary display of goalscoring. The Champions League is supposed to be the hardest competition in the sport but Haaland had five goals inside an hour of a knockout tie against the club who were semifinalists two seasons ago. Records are tumbling, and not merely City’s club best that was set before the Wall Street Crash and which lasted for half a century after Johnson’s death. The most by a City player in a Champions League campaign was Riyad Mahrez’s seven last year. Haaland cruised past that to become the top scorer in this season’s competition. He became the quickest player to 30 Champions League goals in just 25 games and now has a total of 33 goals. After four hattricks already in his brief City career, he scored his fifth yesterday. Only Luiz Adriano and Lionel Messi had previously done that in a Champions League game and, had Pep Guardiola not removed him for the final half hour, the competition’s maiden double hattrick seemed on the cards. Guardiola joked that he took Haaland off to make sure he still has at least one target left to chase. Haaland completed his hattrick in first half stoppage time after two in the space of two minutes midway through the first half, the first a contentious penalty, and then added two more in the 53rd and 57th minutes, with Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne getting the others as City won 8-1 on aggregate. But Haaland was replaced by Julian Alvarez just after the hour, and afterwards said: “I told him (Guardiola) when I went off, I’d love to score a double hattrick – but what can I do!” Asked why he made the switch, Guardiola said: “If he achieved this milestone at 22, 23 years old, it will be boring, his life. Now he has a target, that’s why I make the substitution. “I didn’t know this about Messi against (Bayer) Leverkusen but normally when the game is over I want to let all the players play as much as possible. “Today he scored five goals and I think he had 30-35 touches and this is what we are looking for,” Guardiola said. “When you are involved in the game, when the time comes to score a goal you are more precise. It’s difficult to score when you do not touch the ball for 40 minutes. “Sometimes it’s his fault. Sometimes he doesn’t move – against Crystal Palace I said to him, ‘You didn’t play good today’ – but other times it’s our fault. “Away to Leipzig we didn’t find him in the second half. But we are working to make the process quicker.” City are now into the quarterfinal draw for a sixth consecutive season, a record no other club can match, and Guardiola’s jovial mood was on full display as a question on that achievement brought an unexpected lament regarding Julia Roberts’ preference for Manchester United. “I am a failure in the Champions League,” Guardiola said. “If win the Champions League three times in a row I will be a failure. “I have three idols in my life. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Julia Roberts. These are my three idols. “Julia Roberts years ago came to Manchester – not in the 90s when Sir Alex (Ferguson) was winning titles and titles and titles. “She came in the period where we were better than United, in these four or five years, right? “And she went to visit Man United. She didn’t come to see us. That’s why even if I win the Champions League it will not compare for the fact that Julia Roberts came to Manchester and didn’t come to see us. “Even if I win the Champions League it will not compare to this disappointment I had.” – The Independent Haaland scores five on exceptional night for Man City
