On 23 April, our Corporate Citizenship Committee (CCC) members organized a program looking at  mental health at work. This was their third program for this year and we were grateful to have Florence Tan, Corporate Responsibility, Wellbeing and Diversity & Inclusion Lead of PwC, Wong Ee Laine, Corporate Communications Manager, and Chin Chion Shyuan, Senior Product Manager of Johnson & Johnson to share about their CSR initiatives on mental healthcare programs within their organization.

This is not an easy conversation, especially at the workplace but it is an important topic to be addressed. We all have times when life gets on top of us – sometimes that’s work-related, like deadlines, etc. Sometimes it’s not work-related – it could be health related, our relationships, or family matters.

When we feel distressed, we need a compassionate, human response and these are some of the factors that lead to PWC and J&J recognizing the problem and developing programs to address the issue within the organization.

Members appreciated the sharing session as it helped them to have a better understanding of this important topic and how programs like the ones presented by PWC and J&J impact the staff and discuss whether the program made a difference and most importantly whether it’s an effective program to further invest in.

​The Quarterly Governors Luncheon took place on  25 April at Villa Danieli, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur where we had five of our newest members – Josephine Hoh, Country Director from FireEye Technologies Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Shereen Chow, Director of Sales & Marketing from Pavilion Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Ahmad Hadri Haris, General Manager from Shell Malaysia Limited, David Hashim, Group President from Veritas Architects Sdn Bhd and Olivier Too, Director from Vistra Corporate Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

Building a strong relationship starts with a solid foundation and this luncheon proves to be an effective tool to get to know our members and to have a better understanding of their business and how we at AMCHAM can play a part to help your business grow.

Representatives from AMCHAM at the luncheon were – Ramzi Toubassy, President of AMCHAM & CEO of AmMetLife, Siobhan Das, Executive Director of AMCHAM, Anushia Soosaipillai, Treasurer of AMCHAM and Partner from PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia and Edward Graham, President & Chairman of ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Malaysia Inc. and AMCHAM  Governor.

We’d like to thank our members for their presence this afternoon and we look forward to engaging with you.

AMCHAM on Monday 29 April hosted an informal and closed-door dialogue between AMCHAM member companies and the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Inland Revenue Board (IRB), other government stakeholders regarding “Place of Business provisions” in the new subsections 12(3) and (4) of the Income Tax Act 1967.

Finance Directors and tax professionals from member companies welcomed the opportunity to take their questions directly to policymakers about the Place of Business provisions, and too seek  clarity on how the provisions will be implemented and how this relates to the activities of American investors in Malaysia.

Interest in the dialogue was very high and attendance exceeded 50 people, of which approximately half were government officials and half were AMCHAM members.

This was our second public-private roundtable dialogue with MOF and the IRB – our last one took place in October and focused on Malaysia’s Participation in the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (BEPS Action 5, OECD).

If you’d like to be included on the mailing list for future segments such engagements with policymakers in the investment and taxation space, please email [email protected]

Junior Achievement (JA) Malaysia kicked of the 2019 JA Young Enterprise Program from the mid of January to the mid of February with the Advisors, Achievers and Product Development Workshops for the Central Region of Malaysia. JA Malaysia would like to welcome first time Corporate Sponsors AIG, Johnson and Johnson, Julie’s, Macro Kiosk and Safety Capital as well as welcome back returning Corporate Sponsors Dell, FedEx Express, GE Global Growth, GE Engine Services, On Semiconductor, Sensata Technologies, Sun Power, TBWA, Western Digital, and the 4 new schools and 10 returning schools.

42 Corporate Advisors and 28 Teacher Advisors attended a fulfilling Advisors Workshop hosted at the
brand new AMCHAM Malaysia Executive Office which provided the Advisors the opportunity to mingle, strategize and share their insights as well as recommendations in order to deliver a more rewarding experience based on their respective student’s needs. This year JA Young Enterprise Program will be impacting approximately 420 students from 14 schools in the Central Region.

Subsequently, an Achievers Workshop was graciously hosted at SMK (P) Sri Aman for 210 number of
students. The first half of the session introduced the students to the various roles in a company and what they should think of when starting an enterprise. To reinforce the learnings our Young Entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to engage with 17 corporate representatives from various companies who took time off their schedules to share their real-life experiences as well as address any queries. Among these amazing corporate representatives were

• Mr. Stuart Dean- Chairman of JA Malaysia
• Datuk Tim Tariq Garland – Director of JA Malaysia & Governor of AMCHAM
• Ms. Audrey Wong – Head of Communications, MacroKiosk Bhd
• Mr. Param- Human Resource, Lotus Five Star
• Mr. Thevendran – General Manager of Operations Management & Head of Logistics, Fuji Xerox
• Mr. Mohd. Taufiq – Commercial Finance Manager, General Electric
• Mr. Hor Fook Keong – Finance Manager, AMCHAM Malaysia
• Ms. Mrithula, HR Manager, CUBE Storage Solutions
• Mr. Kaniaaseelan Siva Seelan – IT Executive, SAP Malaysia
• Mr. Patrick Hew – Chief Technology Officer, MacroKiosk Bhd
• Ms. Christabel Hew – Alliance Development Manager, MacroKiosk Bhd
• Ms. Denise Ho – Business Development Executive, Expedio Design
• Ms. Abigail Choo – Industrial Designer, Expedio Design
• Mr. Eugenio Galeotti GE Power, Malaysia
• Ms.Sujithra Jayaseelan – CSR Expert
• Ms.Shanthi Kanthaswamy – Executive Director, JA Malaysia

We would like to thank all corporate representatives for their support as it was an eye opening and thought- provoking session for the students.

In addition to these workshops, this year JA Malaysia is on a mission to upskill our participants by
piloting a STEM related Product Development Workshop that was conducted with the assistance of Me. Reka Makerspace and Expedio Design for 140 students, held at SMK Pusat Bandar Puchong 1. Students were exposed to a wider scope of the Product Development process by introducing cutting edge technology into the production process like 3D Printers, Coding Programs etc. It was also a revelation for the students to be exposed developing products that are eco-friendly like sustainable fashion as well as including renewable energy sources when designing a product. Students also participated in a hackathon where they were randomly grouped and given a specific target group as well as tools they can use to design and develop a useful product idea with these requirements.

JA Malaysia is looking forward to an amazing JA Young Enterprise Program in 2019 and we can’t wait to see what our students come up with. Check out our Instagram or Facebook for more updates like this and more.