The company said in separate announcements to Bursa Malaysia that the two units, OCK Myanmar Towers Pte Ltd and OCK Vietnam Towers Pte Ltd, were set up with the intention to undertake activities related to tower facilities, utilities and communication network for mobile and broadband operators.

Ooi Chin Khoon, OCK managing director and substantial shareholder, and Low Hock Keong, also a director and shareholder, have been appointed directors of both units.

The company recently inked a deal with Telenor Myanmar to build 920 telco towers in Myanmar that it will own and lease out. These towers would be completed in the first quarter of next year and start contributing to the company’s revenue from then.

Ooi had recently shared that the company was in talks for another business opportunity in Vietnam that would add to its future net profit.

He had told StarBizWeek in March that there were no plans to raise more cash for the Vietnam deal as the company was in a comfortable cash position after raising 30 million ringgit (US$7.31 million) from shareholders recently.

At the workshop, “The Next Production Revolution and its policy implications” jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on Thursday in Hanoi, experts said that the world was on the brink of the next production revolution with profound technological breakthroughs, while Vietnam was embarking on the new stage of development and integration with accelerated industrialisation from 2016 to 2020.

Besides opportunities, the next production revolution posed challenges to Vietnma particularly the challenge of further lagging behind, according to the experts.

It is time for policy-makers in Vietnam to acquire a better understanding of the digital revolution to make the best of the revolution’s opportunities in its early stages and to speed up industrialisation and modernisation, experts at the OECD said.

They were optimistic that Vietnam would turn into a high-income country in the next four decades.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said that innovative thinking was critical for Vietnam to move forward while the country was losing its competitiveness in low-cost labour.

Tran Dinh Thien, director of Vietnam Institute of Economics, said Vietnam had signed free trade agreements with the world’s giant economies such as the European Union, South Korea and the US.

“Amidst rapid integration coupled with the approaching next production revolution, if Vietnam went on the right path, the country could take a giant leap,” Thien said.

Kensuke Tanaka, head of the OECD Development Centre’s Asia desk, said at the conference that strengthening market-based reforms, SOE reforms and reforms to education and training to meet demand for skilled labour were essential.

OECD, on its website, says that the spread of global value chains, the increasing importance and mainstreaming of knowledge-based capital, and the rise of the digital economy, are ushering in the “next production revolution”.

However, a number of policy challenges must be tackled to enable the next production revolution, the website says.

The world went through three industrial revolutions, according to the World Economic Forum. The first was in 1784 using water and steam power to mechanise production. The second was in 1870 using electric power to create mass production, and the third took place in 1969 using electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a digital revolution was in the making.

Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed said on Friday the investments involved 1,271 projects but he expected this year to be another challenging year for the country.

“As a diversified economy, we believe we can withstand these challenges and overcome them, especially with the continued inflow of foreign investments into the country. We are definitely doubling our efforts in achieving the country’s investment target,” he said.

Elaborating on the Q1 2016 investments, he said despite a weaker global environment, Malaysia remains as a competitive investment location for foreign investors, with an increase of 28 per cent in this quarter.

“Year-on-year, FDI increased to 12.8 billion ringgit in Q1 2016 from 10 billion ringgit in the corresponding period of 2015. Domestic investments led with 24.5 billion ringgit or 65.7 per cent of total approved investments in Q1 2016,” Mustapa said.

He said taking into account the two lumpy projects approved in Q1, 2015 — China’s in Johor and LNG9’s project in Sarawak – Q1, 2016 showed a decrease from 69.8 billion ringgit. The two projects amounted to 35.3 billion ringgit.

“I would like to highlight that without the two big projects, Q1 2016 actually shows an overall increase of 8.1 per cent from 34.5 billion ringgit last year,” he added.

Mustapa said the services sector attracted 27.6 billion ringgit of approved investments in Q1 2016. A total of 1,088 services projects were approved creating 20,200 employment opportunities, the largest potential employer in the economy. “Foreign investment in the services sector surged by 112.1 per cent from 3.3 billion ringgit in Q1, 2015 to 7 billion ringgit in the same period this year. We are seeing more foreign participation in distributive trade, education services, global establishments, financial services and real estate sub-sectors,” he said.

Distributive trade saw an increase of 992 per cent of foreign participation from 101.5 million ringgit in Q1 2015 to 1,108.7 million ringgit in Q1 2016.

The increased investments from regional and international retailers have boosted Malaysia’s ranking to 3rd position in the 2016 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) by A.T. Kearney.

For the education sub-sector, the increase of 672.7 per cent of foreign investments from 19.3 million ringgit in Q1 2015 to 149.2 million ringgit in Q1 2016 reflects Malaysia’s success in accelerating the process in making the country a regional education hub of excellence. The private education sector will complement the government’s efforts in providing access to quality education to the people.

As to date, there are 501 private higher institutions that offer a wide range of disciplines at every level of education including short-term and professional courses certificate, diploma, degree and post-graduate degree qualifications.

Global establishments and end-to-end global supply chain management services are fast becoming important components in the Malaysian economic backbone.

In Q1 2016, MIDA approved a total of 60 global establishments with investments of 5.6 billion ringgit. The lion share of these was from 6 Principal Hub projects with total investments worth 5.5 billion ringgit.

These investments were in the aerospace, electronic & electrical (E&E), food & beverage and resource-based industries. The principal hub initiative is among the high value added services that is currently promoted by Malaysia.

Investments in the manufacturing sector for Q1 2016 totalled 8.9 billion ringgit from 170 projects. The approved manufacturing projects are expected to generate about 19,650 employment opportunities.

“Despite the decrease in investments in this sector for the first quarter of this year, it is noteworthy that Malaysia has attracted significant investments in the transport equipment industry, with a spike of 1,584 per cent from 40.1 billion ringgit in Q1 2015 to 675.7 billion ringgit in Q1 2016.

“Other industries which recorded high growth rates were paper, printing & publishing (944.0 per cent), food (550.0 per cent), leather & leather products (162.3 per cent), chemical & chemical products (159.1 per cent), scientific & measuring equipment (78.8 per cent), and rubber products (57.1 per cent).

Regardless of a lower investment value in Q1 2016, the E&E industry emerged as the main contributor to the total approved investments in the manufacturing sector compared to the corresponding period last year. Most of the high quality projects in E&E are concentrated in solar, fabricated wafers and semiconductor devices.

Malaysia continued to register a lower investment in the primary sector due to the challenges in global crude oil prices.

Investments in this sector recorded a total of 874.9 million ringgit in Q1 2016. The mining subsector led with approved investments of 692.2 million ringgit, mainly from oil and gas exploration activities.

Approved investments in the plantation and commodities subsector totalled 129 million ringgit. In Q1 2016, a total of 53.7 million ringgit investment was approved in the agriculture subsector.

US$1 = 4 ringgit as of 6/17/2016 via oanda.com

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data released on Thursday showed that in May this year, US$1.78 billion (Bt62.7 billion) in foreign portfolio investments flowed into the country – the highest inflow since May last year.

In the meantime, the $1.71 billion in hot money withdrawn in May was the biggest outflow since July last year. This resulted in a net inflow of $72.8 million.

Foreign-portfolio investments come in the form of placements in publicly listed shares, government and private sector IOUs, and deposit certificates. Portfolio investments are considered short-term bets – hence the term “hot money” – because these placements can be pulled out quickly.

In a statement, the BSP attributed the 40.1-per=cent month-on-month and 12.3-per-cent year-on-year jump in registered portfolio investments to “large inflows in shares of a holding company and a universal bank, renewed interest in peso-denominated government securities and the relatively peaceful conduct of elections” in May.

Outflows, meanwhile, rose by 5.1 per cent month on month because of profit-taking, the BSP said, although outflows were down by 20.7 per cent year on year.

The net inflows in May reversed the net outflows of $354.1 million in April, which were blamed on pre-election market jitters, as well as the $569.3-million net outflow in May last year.

BSP data showed that the first two weeks of May yielded net outflows – $172.4 million on the week of May 2-6 or before the elections and $84.8 million on May 9-13 or the week following election day.

The remaining two weeks and two trading days of May resulted in net inflows of $123.3 million (May 16-20), $50.7 million (May 23-27), and $156 million (May 30-31).

In May, 83.3 per cent of registered foreign-portfolio investments were placed in Philippine Stock Exchange-listed securities (mainly of banks; food, beverage and tobacco companies; holding firms; property companies; and telecommunications firms), yielding net inflows of $46 million.

Peso government securities, meanwhile, saw net inflows of $27 million.

The top five sources of hot money in May were Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom as well as the United States.

At the end of the first five months, inflows hit $6.6 billion while outflows reached $6.5 billion, resulting in a net inflow of $129 million.

The end-May net inflow was dwarfed by the $1.2 billion posted in the first five months of last year, as the BSP noted “profit-taking, concerns about the slowdown of the Chinese economy, and the decline in global oil prices” this year. Large inflows were recorded a year ago on the back of stock offerings of two holding companies, two universal banks and a property firm, the BSP said.

Speaking at the Budget 2017 consultation council meeting yesterday, Najib said Malaysia’s fiscal position remained strong despite the difficulties.

“We have made significant strides but these achievements do not mean that we can rest on our laurels.

“In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecasts that 2017 will be an equally challenging year. Global growth is expected to improve only marginally from 3.2 per cent in 2016 to 3.5 per cent.

“So in order for the Malaysian economy to remain on track, we have to depend on the domestic economy. “This is why I believe we must fully embrace the opportunities brought about by information and communication technology,” he added.

Najib, who is the Finance Minister, said the transformative power of science and technology must also be leveraged on to instil the spirit of innovation and creativity among local entrepreneurs.

“There is talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution which depicts digital revolution and is characterised by a cyber-physical system.

“The revolution is enabled by the popularisation of mobile devices, unprecedented processing power, storage capacity and access to knowledge. We need to capitalise on the digital and sharing economy that is becoming more important.

“These efforts will enable us to strengthen our growth momentum and be ready when the global economy fully recovers,” he added.

Najib said the country registered 4.2 per cent growth in the first quarter of the year despite lower oil prices and a weak economy, attributing this to strong private investment and consumption, among others.

Foreign direct investments in the first quarter totalled 15 billion ringgit (US$3.65 billion), up from 9.9 billion ringgit over the same period last year.

“This is a testament to investor confidence in Malaysia,” he said, adding that the government was aiming to lower the fiscal deficit to 3.1 per cent this year from 3.2 per cent in 2015.

With 2020 looming, Najib said Malaysia must increase its productivity and attract foreign talent if it wanted to achieve high-income nation status.

On Budget 2017, Najib said more than 90 institutions had forwarded suggestions covering macro, sectoral and social issues.

“Every issue that is raised will be scrutinised and discussed at the meeting of the Budget 2017 focus group soon,” he said.

(US$1 = 4.10 ringgit as of 6/17/2016 via oanda.com)

The video of the flightless bird speeding down the fast lane at about 3.20pm was uploaded by Jeff Sandhu on social media website Instagram.

“When I came by it, the ostrich was running from the Universiti Malaya bus stop heading towards the Federal Highway. It blocked traffic at the bus stop as cars stopped to see what was happening,” he told The Star Online on Thursday.

“After the bus stop, it started running on the road. And the next thing you know, it ran all the way to the RTM building,” he said.

It appeared that the ostrich also had no regard for rules, and ran “afowl” of basic road etiquette.

“It blocked up five lanes on the Federal Highway,” said Sandhu, who explained that it took up so much space because the indecisive ostrich kept switching lanes.

“Everyone wasn’t sure whether to overtake it or not so we stayed behind it,” he added.

However, the ostrich adhered to at least one road rule.

“It was running within the speed limit, so that’s OK,” said Sandhu, who estimated the bird’s general speed at about 35kmh before it grew tired and slowed down.

Sandhu stopped tailing the feathered fugitive at the RTM building because he had a meeting to attend.

“I had to stop following it by then because I had a meeting. I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them I was late because I was chasing after an ostrich,” he said.

He also expressed some worry for his new friend, hoping that the bird finds its way home unharmed.

“I hope the ostrich doesn’t get hurt and finds its way back home! Raya is coming and I’m sure everyone wants it to be home safe,” he said, echoing the concerned sentiments of netizens who commented on his video.

There is no information yet on what the ostrich was doing or where it came from.

The Star Online is in the midst of contacting the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and the Department of Veterinary Services to the status of the ostrich.

All attempts so far to apprehend the ostrich have been futile.

“We sent a team to locate and capture the ostrich but it could not be detected. It is likely that the bird has run to another area,” an officer at the Seksyen 7 Petaling Jaya Fire and Rescue Department told The Star Online.

However, catching the bird was a delicate manner as it required some “interstate coordination”.

“It is difficult as the bird was spotted at the border (between Kuala Lumpur and Selangor),” he quipped.

In a meeting with members of the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO) earlier this week, Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, said the city was committed to creating a favourable investment environment for the business community.

“The goal is to help HCM City grow like other East Asian cities. City agencies will outline specific goals and strategies for development,” Phong said. “If these goals aren’t identified and acted upon properly, however, the effort will go to waste. I hope that businesspeople will take part in making HCM City a leading economic hub of the country.”

The city has been working with economic institutes and experts on development plans that will be submitted to the government for consideration.

“I expect entrepreneurs to be ready to compete with huge brands with high-quality products. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has removed tariff barriers hampering business growth, so entrepreneurs must come up with breakthrough changes to enhance their competitiveness in the market,” Phong said.

The city’s management team will also ensure that urban infrastructure meets the needs of development and creates a dynamic business environment.

Also speaking at the meeting, Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital Group, said the city should ensure that products such as bonds or company shares were available for investors to buy and sell because they prefer avoiding contracts that need three to four years of negotiations.

The chairman of the AA Corporation, Nguyen Quoc Khanh, suggested that large-scale exhibition centres be built to attract more investors.

HCM City only has one major convention centre, a 20,000-sq-metre building in District 7, in contrast to larger centres in Singapore, which has a 200,000-sq-metre centre, and Guangzhou, with an 800,000-sq-metre exhibition centre.

Vo Sy Nhan, general director of NP Capital Limited, noted that new policies should be considered for the Thu Thiem Urban project to further its potential, in addition to the existing plans to become a major financial centre linked with downtown HCM City, with metro lines and connecting bridges.

He said the city also should streamline the visa-making process and reduce personal income and corporate taxes to attract multinational corporations and large financial institutions.

In addition, the city should re-organise Tan Son Nhat International Airport’s taxi pick-up and drop-off areas.

“The airport’s taxi area is very chaotic. We need to re-arrange it to make a good impression on our international friends,” Nhan added.

Agreeing that the airport needs renovation, Phong said he had made recommendations to relevant authorities since the airport is not under the city’s jurisdiction.

In his newsletter to investors, Mobius also noted that the country’s economic growth has been very good while the ringgit is undervalued. He also expressed optimism that issues surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd and the related political scandal would not have a long-term impact on Malaysia.

Looking at some other fundamentals in Malaysia, the fund manager noted that the country was a net exporter of oil and gas, so lower prices have had a negative impact.

“Palm oil is also a key export for Malaysia (the world’s second-largest producer) and its price has been weak, and that certainly has had at least a psychological market impact.

“However, the use of palm oil globally is not declining, mainly because of demand from China and India, and we don’t expect prices to stay permanently depressed,” Mobius said, adding that Malaysia had a diverse array of export products and was actually predominantly a consumption-driven country, representing 60 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“Malaysia’s economy has a large service sector, which to me is a sign of its maturity. GDP growth since 1996 has averaged about 5 per cent, and while various forecasters call for growth below that level this year, it still appears to be experiencing a solid growth rate. Looking at some other metrics, household debt is at 89 per cent and public or government debt-to-GDP is at 54 per cent.

“While those readings may seem high to some observers (and higher than they were in 1997 during the Asian financial crisis), both readings are actually less than that of the United States. Malaysia’s trade surplus is good (which not many countries can boast of) and foreign reserves remain at a healthy level,” Mobius said.

He believes that Malaysia’s demographics represented a positive factor going forward, as its young population was entering its most productive years and represents a big consumer market. He thinks that Malaysia has much more potential in many consumer sectors, as well as in tourism.

“If economic fundamentals do not seem to be signalling a crisis, it seems that political scandal has been more likely behind the flight of foreign investors from Malaysia,” he said.

Mobius said the default of 1MDB and the related political scandal had affected investor sentiment and confidence. However, foreign investor flows are often short-term in nature and temporary.

“Negative news certainly affects investor confidence, but we generally see these periods of market overreactions as opportunities – if we find reasons for a recovery long term.

“We find a number of sectors to be attractive in Malaysia today, including integrated oil companies involved not only in production but also exploration, refining and marketing, as well as companies involved in the consumer sector,” he said.

These companies are involved in property developments, regulated assets and casino operations.

Maybank Investment Bank Research said a potentially slower UK economy (or even a recession) and a weaker British pound resulting from a Brexit would be negative but the impact on Malaysian public-listed companies would be limited to just a few.

Within its research coverage, major Malaysian investments in the UK are in property developments (Battersea by SP Setia Bhd, Sime Darby), regulated assets (YTL Power), casino operations (Genting Malaysia), and renewable energy (KNM Group).

“A potentially slower UK economy could affect future take-ups at Battersea but positively, the project has locked in sizeable sales (which have yet to be recognised) totalling 1.6 billion pounds (US$2.27 billion) or 18.3 per cent of its total gross development value.

“But a weaker pound should result in lower Malaysian ringgit profits (from the foreign exchange impact and margins).

“Based on our sensitivity analysis, a 10 per cent weakness in the pound/ringgit from our base case would impact our financial year 2017 net profit estimates for SP Setia and Sime Darby lower by 3.5 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively,” the research house noted.

Battersea’s combined take-up rate averages 85 per cent, with an unbilled sales of 1.6 billion pounds as at end-Dec 2015.

The total development cost incurred as at end-Dec 2015 was 7.88 billion ringgit (US$1.92 billion), while the net asset value was 2.80 billion ringgit, according to SP Setia’s latest annual report.

Maybank Investment said the impact of slower future take-ups would show in the earnings only from 2020, potentially affecting the remaining unsold units of phase 3A and the yet-to-be launched phases.

A potentially slower UK economy should not impact demand much at Wessex but it could affect visitors and collections at Genting Malaysia’s UK operations, it noted. A potentially weaker pound should result in lower translated ringgit profits and investment values.

Based on the research firm’s sensitivity analysis, a 10 per cent weakness in the pound/ringgit from its base case would impact net profit estimates for YTL Power and Genting Malaysia lower by 7 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.

YTL Power bought into Wessex Water in 2002, and this year marks the 25th year of Wessex’s privatisation.

Wessex is a significant investment to YTL Power – its net asset value of 1.85 billion ringgit as at end-Jun 2015 made up 16 per cent of group net asset value, while its earnings contribution was larger at 74 per cent of group pre-tax profit last year.

Meanwhile, Genting Malaysia UK operations had a net asset value (before interest bearing instruments) of 4.91 billion ringgit as at end-December 2015, which made up 24 per cent of group net asset value (before interest bearing instruments).

At the topline, the UK operations contributed 16 per cent to group turnover in financial yaer 2015 but at the bottomline, the UK operations were loss-making due to low VIP hold rate, bad debts and pre-opening expenses at Resorts World Birmingham.

As for KNM’s Peterborough project, the brokerage added that a slower UK economy should not significantly impact the project’s financials.

Maybank Research said it had yet to reflect any earnings impact from this project in its forecasts for KNM.

Global markets are increasingly jittery ahead of the Brexit referendum on June 23 after recent polls suggest that the odds are tilting towards a “leave”, rather than a “remain” outcome.