Morning Brief

Calls for Prime Minister's Question Time have gone unheeded, with De Facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong saying that the existing mechanism of Minister's Question Time is sufficient. We speak to Wong Chen, MP for Subang, for this and more about the wider political landscape in the country.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:38 - The maker of the world’s best selling drug and the biggest Botox seller, respectively AbbVie and Allergan are marrying. This follows the M&A trends in big pharma to deal with shoring up patent pipelines. 04:52 - Meanwhile, Instagram is going into online retailing. This will be liked by Facebook which in hindsight bought Instagram at a bargain price of only US$1bSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:28 - FGV Holdings’ major shareholders voted against three resolutions on FGV directors' remuneration. According to the chairman of FGV, the board is still deliberating on the matter and that the issue will likely not be resolved any time soon. 07:16 - Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said while the government is open to the possibility of selling Malaysian Airlines, it was also important to ensure that its identity as the national carrier is retained.  The government has injected billions of ringgit over the years to turn the company around but the carrier continues to remain in the red. Listen in for more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With a model for toll acquisition announced we speak to Loong Chee Wei, Senior Associate Director at Affin Hwang Capital, to find out if the offer was fair. We also ask if capital markets were happy with the offer and question whether it will lead to more highway acquisitions in the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1:05 - With Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt left in Britain's Conservative party leadership race, we speak to Dr Alan Wager, a lecturer at King’s College London, to get an update and get insight into whether Boris is headed for 10 Downing Street. 07:18 - One of the biggest names in gambling, Caesars Entertainment, has agreed to be bought by rival Eldorado Resorts in a deal worth 17.3 billion dollars. Listen in for details of the deal.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:35 - Moody cites close credit linkages between Petronas and the Malaysian government as its reasoning behind why it cut rates by 1 notch. However its upgraded its outlook for the national oil corporation to stable. 4:43 - Meanwhile, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, says Malaysia is on the right track towards institutional reforms, managing government debt and tackling corruption, but more needs to be done.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak to K.Y Ng, Managing Director of BitInsight, to see if cryptocurrencies can go mainstream with Libra's eventual debut in 2020.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the weekend, PAS held its 65th muktamar or annual congress, and its party elections for the term 2019 to 2021 in Pahang, which saw the top posts go uncontested. One of the major outcomes of the congress was the strengthening of the alliance between PAS and UMNO where the muktamar adopted a resolution in support of the political cooperation with UMNO. We speak to Sheridan Mahavera, journalist with The Malaysian Insight to get a better sense of what went on during the meeting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 34th ASEAN Summit took place over the weekend, heralding a new ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. We speak to Benjamin Bland, Director of the Lowry Institute, to understand how this compares to previous approaches by the bloc, as well as to find out whether the bloc can escape the shadow of US-China relations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Simmering tensions in the Middle East have thrown global oil supplies into question, as well as raised the spectre once again of armed conflict in the region. For more insight into whether we're headed for an all out conflagration, or if all parties will be able to cool themselves off, we speak to Hady Amr, a visiting fellow at the Brookings InstituteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:08 - The Pakatan government is making progress in fulfilling Promise 6 of their manifesto by offering RM4.5 billion cash to takeover 4 major urban highways owned by Gamuda. 05:51 - Meanwhile, liberalisation of the sugar sector with the issuance of more import licences in Sarawak means that things aren't looking too sweet for local sugar refiners.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auto sales pick up year on year but on a deeper dive it's the low base and seasonality effect. However we examine if this trend can continue by looking at Proton and Perodua plans in detail. 05:40 - Paramount Corporation is selling its education business for cash and entrenching itself in the property sector to Two Horses Capital, led by former Khazanah executives. This is in line with the group’s intention to become a pure-play property group. The group will be selling majority stakes in Paramount Education, Paramount Education Klang, and Sri KDU. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following US President Donald Trump's announcement that he will be running for re-election, we speak to Professor Robert Shapiro, Professor of Government at Columbia University, about Trump's prospects and the current Democratic field.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak with Donald Hanna, Chief Economist at CIMB Group about how sustainable the Chinese economy is and whether it is truly on a growth trajectory.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia has reportedly lost some RM5 billion in potential tax revenues from the illicit tobacco trade. We speak to Pete Collings of Oxford Economics and Erik Stoel, managing director of British American Tobacco. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To  find out the potential growth of the insurance sector and the protection gap that China faces, we speak to Zhang Yi, a financial and insurance analyst with Shenwan Hongyuan Securities based in Hong Kong.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak to Firdaos Rosli, Director, Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia to find out if this initiative is actually good and a solution to our economic issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Morning Run crew discuss news that US President Donald Trump has formally announced re-election plans. 06:37 -  Apple has asked its suppliers to move up to a third of production out of China and into Southeast Asia, to mitigate possible fallout from the US-China trade war.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Four Russians and one Ukrainian have been formally charged with shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014. 03:43 - Malaysia Airports Holding has seen its share price climbing, on a favourable proposal from Mavcom released earlier this week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Facebook announced plans to launch a cryptocurrency, Libra, in attempts to broaden its revenue stream. 06:01 - Huawei has suffered about a 40% drop in overseas smartphone shipments, after the US placed it on an export blacklist.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Touch 'n Go wants to expand its product line in the e-financial segment, following its launch of the Touch 'n Go e-wallet app which has seen growth of over 5000% in the past 11 months.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hours after Iran threatened to derail the 2015 nuclear deal, President Trump ordered 1,000 more troops to the Middle East. To better understand what’s at stake, we speak to James Dorsey, Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Singapore stands out in ASEAN as being a casualty of the US-Sino trade war. The rest of ASEAN might just escape economic damage.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Iran may breach the allowed limit of its uranium stockpile, unless Europe helps offset the effect of the US sanctions 03:58 - China may restrict rare earth exports, in a move widely seen as a retaliatory measure for the US clampdown on Huawei. We speak to Eily Ong, Global Metals and Mining, Commodity and Equity Research Analyst from Bloomberg Intelligence for more insight.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The MyFintech Week conference is happening from 17 to 21 June and is hosted by Bank Negara Malaysia. In her opening speech, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus viewed fintech as a means to enhance competition, increase productivity and fundamentally change the way institutions provide financial services. She said technology could present significant opportunities to reduce the cost of financial intermediation and expand access. 06:20 - Member of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) and senior adviser at Khazanah Research Institute, Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram said Malaysia should forget about politics and instead, recognise and deal with issues arising from external headwinds that are impacting the country's economy. Jomo added that the complex external situation is deteriorating on an almost daily basis and highlighted that these problems were beyond the control of the Malaysian government.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The latest in the Malaysia Retail Industry Report shows a higher projected growth in retail sales of 4.9% this year, an upward revision compared to an earlier estimate given in March.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

01:05 - There is a possibility that the auto sector will be facing the biggest headwinds since 2008 with global sales dropping sharply. To understand why this might be the case, we speak to Carlos Casanova, Chief Asia Economist at Coface. 09:15 - India starts a tit-for-tat trade war against the US by imposing duties on 28 products after it was not granted special tax exemptions for steel and aluminium imports.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two men connected to the 1MDB scandal have been convicted and sentenced to jail in Abu Dhabi. However, their convictions were not related to 1MDB but were part of a broader investigation by the Abu Dhabi Public Funds Prosecution into allegations of corruption.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:08 - Bank Negara Malaysia is looking to formulate a Consumer Credit Act, to provide consumers with protection irrespective of the source of their loans. 04:43 - PTPTN has received a suggestion to discontinue loans for institutions and courses with low employability.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the race for the UK Conservative Party leadership underway, we speak to Professor Simon Tormey of the University of Sydney, for his take on Boris Johnson's popularity, and his chances of winning leadership of the UK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The tech sector rallies but are we headed for tough times with Anti trust and US-China trade worries? For a deeper dive on the tech sector and who the winners will be, we speak to Jonathan Curtis, Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Franklin Equity Group.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some airline companies have failed to comply with Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code (MAPC) amendments by not disclosing the final price of airfare before any ticket is purchased. As a result, Mavcom have issued them with show-cause letters. Listen in for more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hundreds of thousands of residents in the city state have taken to the streets in protest of an Extradition Bill with China that analysts say is a larger objection to its autonomy, suspicious that the world's largest economy wants more control of the autonomous region that many see is an affront to the ages-old "One Country Two Systems" model. For more insights, we speak to Samson Yuen, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:12 - The RM44 billion East Coast Rail Link tunneling has started with the Chinese in charge but other civil jobs are available attracting 1321 submissions from local contractors eyeing the work.  02:23 - For the first time since 2014, national cars outsell non-national ones thanks to X70 and Myvi.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

0:44 - Shreyans Bhaskar, a research analyst with the The Economist Intelligence Unit, discusses the possible repercussions of reports that the Indian government may have embellished its GDP figures. 11:02 - Meanwhile, EU regulators have blocked JV attempts by India's Tata Steel and Germany's Thyssenkrup on fears the merged duo might manipulate prices.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grab is hoping to turn into an online bank if Singapore liberalizes the sector. This new foray would shake up the banking sector which has been dominated by DBS Group, OCBC and United Overseas Bank. Listen in for more.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The police declared Kampung Kuala Koh a “red zone” following several deaths among the Orang Asli Batek tribe who reside there. The authorities have attributed the deaths to lung infection and pneumonia. So the “red zone” declaration essentially serves as a ban on the entry into the village, save for those who have obtained permission to do so.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.