AMCHAM was honored to host Tan Sri Rebecca Sta Maria, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat for our fourth session of AMCHAM GATE 40.
Tan Sri Rebecca gave a quick update about some of the work that the APEC Secretariat has been involved in recently. Drawing upon some recent happenings, she also shared some insights into the importance of communications to organizations. Our participants were keen to hear her insights on recent issues such as the regional response to COVID-19, vaccine passports and other cross-cutting issues such as data privacy.
Citi was named best bank for corporate responsibility in Asia by Euromoney in their recent annual awards.
Citi said the editorial award recognises a bank’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion; reducing the environmental impact of operations; promoting workforce development and social mobility; and innovative and effective initiatives to strengthen local communities in which banks are domiciled.
Peter Babej, Citi Asia Pacific CEO, said: “Citi is committed to building a more diverse, inclusive and sustainable future. This award is excellent recognition of everything we do to support our clients and communities to generate positive change.”
In a statement issued on Friday, the bank said the award recognised its important work in these areas over the last year.
In September 2020, Citi Asia Pacific and the Citi Foundation committed US$35mil in philanthropic investments to advance economic opportunities and employability for youth from low-income and underserved communities in the region by 2023.
Today, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) held a virtual briefing on their MyDigitalWorkforce Work in Tech (MYWiT) initiative. The MYWiT initiative aims to incentivize employers that hire Malaysians via digital upskilling and reskilling programmes and encourage companies to hire digital talent through salary and training incentives.
Raymond Siva, Senior VP, Investment & Brand; Chief Marketing Officer, MDEC provided the opening remarks and Maria Khor, Senior Manager, Digital and Data Workforce, Digital Skills And Jobs, MDEC provided the briefing on MYWiT initiative.
Thank you MDEC for that briefing. For more information about MYWiT, head over to https://mdec.my/mywit/
Following its acquisition of Legg Mason in 2020, Franklin Templeton has established a new regionalised distribution model for its business and made new appointments in lead roles. In focusing on the rapidly growing Asia business, the global investment management firm has appointed Tariq Ahmad as Head of Asia Distribution to further strengthen the company’s leadership team for future growth in the region.
Ahmad has been with Brandywine Global Investment Management (Brandywine Global), a specialist investment manager of Franklin Templeton since 2017 and served as its lead. In his new role, he will provide executive oversight of sales, marketing and product strategy efforts across Asia (excluding Japan, India and mainland China).
Malaysia remains an attractive destination for high-value manufacturing and global services in Asia due to its favourable investment environment, according to Knight Frank Malaysia’s latest publication, the Real Estate Highlights First Half of 2021 (REH).
Knight Frank Malaysia executive director of capital markets, industrial Allan Sim said in the manufacturing space, the company particularly sees more interests surfacing in the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector driven by the global shortage of semiconductors and the 5G network roll-out.
“The E&E sector is amongst the top performers amongst key indices, such as manufacturing output, export as well as manufacturing sales.
