logo
WCR 2025 Performance Proves Effectiveness Of MADANI Govt's Economic Policies

WCR 2025 Performance Proves Effectiveness Of MADANI Govt's Economic Policies

Barnama4 hours ago

PUTRAJAYA, June 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's performance in the World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR) 2025 demonstrates the country's investment appeal amid a challenging global landscape.
Minister of Housing and Local Government Nga Kor Ming said that this achievement also underscores the effectiveness of the economic policies implemented by the MADANI Government.
Malaysia jumped 11 places in the rankings to 23rd, marking the country's best performance since 2020 and signalling positive momentum in the national economic recovery and reform agenda.
Nga, in a statement yesterday, said that Malaysia remains the third most attractive investment destination globally, drawing interest from global tech giants such as Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, and Infineon to expand their investments in the local market.
'Under the leadership of the MADANI Government, Malaysia's economic growth reached 5.1 per cent in 2024, exceeding the expectations of the World Bank and other international agencies. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) dividend rate also increased to 6.3 per cent, higher than the previous year,' he said.
The WCR is published annually by the Switzerland-based Institute for Management Development (IMD).
It is a comprehensive report that assesses economies based on their capacity to generate and sustain a business-friendly environment that contributes to long-term prosperity.
-- BERNAMA

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Standard Chartered cuts jobs in Singapore; moves them to India: Finance jobs portal
Standard Chartered cuts jobs in Singapore; moves them to India: Finance jobs portal

The Star

time33 minutes ago

  • The Star

Standard Chartered cuts jobs in Singapore; moves them to India: Finance jobs portal

The bank had previously cut about 100 jobs across its Singapore, London and Hong Kong hubs in November 2024. - ST SINGAPORE: Dozens of staff at Standard Chartered have reportedly been laid off in Singapore in a fresh round of job cuts by the London-based bank. The move affected about 80 Singapore-based employees – understood to be from the bank's technology and operations teams – with their jobs being offshored to India, according to finance jobs portal efinancialcareers. In a website article published on June 12, the global financial services company noted that 'sources at the bank in Singapore said the 80 jobs currently being offshored to India are likely only the start'. 'Singapore remains a critical centre for their global businesses and technology and operations teams,' a StanChart spokesman said when contacted by ST, without providing details such as whether the job cuts are part of the bank's plan to save costs in a bid to return capital to shareholders. 'We continually look to enhance our operations to serve our clients better. As a global firm, we maintain a dynamic blend of world-class local talent in our key markets, including Singapore, and leverage the multi-disciplinary expertise housed in our global business service hubs,' he added. The bank, which makes most of its money in Asia and the Middle East, is in the midst of a corporate cost-saving programme called 'Fit for Growth' as it aims to return US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) more to shareholders. It reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat estimates in February 2025. The bank had previously cut about 100 jobs across its Singapore, London and Hong Kong hubs in November 2024. This was part of the Asia-focused lender's plan to cut costs by more than US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) through 2024. StanChart's head office in Singapore is at Marina Bay Financial Centre, with a network of 11 branches and over 30 ATMs islandwide. A check on StanChart's job openings on its website showed that the bank is still hiring for over 60 Singapore-based roles in areas ranging from operations to marketing and business development. Tech positions, such as infrastructure engineers and those related to digital products, are still open. The job cuts follow other global banks that have made reductions to their workforce, including DBS, which had communicated its intention to reduce its contract and temporary staff by around 4,000 over the next three years as artificial intelligence increasingly takes on roles carried out by humans. Meanwhile, HSBC had also announced a restructuring process in October 2024 that was expected to lead to job cuts, mainly involving those in senior roles to reduce duplication. HSBC Singapore was not able to comment on the number and type of senior management roles it has here, then. The financial sector's contribution to Singapore's gross domestic product has grown from 12.5 per cent in 2018 to 13.8 per cent in 2024, with a workforce of close to 200,000 here. - The Straits Times/ANN

Second WTE plant costing RM660 mln to be built in Sungai Udang, Melaka
Second WTE plant costing RM660 mln to be built in Sungai Udang, Melaka

The Sun

time41 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Second WTE plant costing RM660 mln to be built in Sungai Udang, Melaka

PUTRAJAYA: The country's second Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant costing RM660 million will be built in Sungai Udang, Melaka, and is expected to be fully operational by 2029. Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming said the Sungai Udang WtE project had undergone an open tender process and would be implemented through a Public-Private Partnership approach between the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) and a consortium comprising Malakoff Corporation Bhd and Alam Flora Environmental Solutions Sdn Bhd (AFES), based on the Build, Operate and Own (BOO) model. 'This plant will utilise stoker grate incineration technology that complies with all current technical requirements and environmental standards. 'The concessionaire has also shown commitment to constructing a second incineration line in the future to ensure uninterrupted operations, subject to new agreement negotiations,' he said at the Sungai Udang WtE Concession Agreement Signing Ceremony here today. The agreement was signed by KPKT Secretary-General Datuk M Noor Azman Taib; Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) chairman Hee Loy Sian and Sungai Udang WtE Sdn Bhd director Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib, and witnessed by Nga. Nga said the Sungai Udang WtE plant is expected to process up to 1,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, generate 22 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and reduce over 259,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually—equivalent to the environmental benefit of planting more than four million trees. He said the plant would also be equipped with a leachate treatment system with a capacity of 96 cubic metres and would be built on 9.8 acres of land at the existing Sungai Udang landfill site. In terms of implementation, Nga said the construction of the plant would begin next year and take three years to complete, after fulfilling various preconditions that have been set. These include key approvals such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Social Impact Assessment (SIA), Environmental Management Plan (EMP), Solid Waste Management Plan (PSS), and several other technical documents required to ensure the safety and sustainability of the project. 'The concession period for this project is set at 34 years, including a three-year construction period. The Sungai Udang WtE plant is targeted to be fully operational by 2029, with the end of the concession and demolition of the plant scheduled for 2061,' he said. Nga also stated that the amount of solid waste generated by Malaysians is projected to increase to 17.03 million metric tonnes by the year 2035. This increase, he said, clearly signals that relying solely on landfill sites is not only unsustainable but also insufficient to accommodate the continuous rise in waste. 'It is time for us to re-evaluate our current approach and shift towards more sustainable solutions. WtE technology is emerging as one of the key drivers in transforming the national solid waste management system. 'This initiative is expected to contribute up to 600MW of renewable energy (RE) as part of the strategy to achieve 70 per cent renewable energy capacity by 2050,' he said. The first WtE plant was completed in 2023 at Ladang Tanah Merah, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, with a processing capacity of 800 tonnes of waste per day and energy generation of 15MW. WtE is a technology that converts non-recyclable waste materials into usable forms of energy, such as heat, electricity, or fuel.

Submerging servers in liquid helps data centres cut energy use
Submerging servers in liquid helps data centres cut energy use

The Star

timean hour ago

  • The Star

Submerging servers in liquid helps data centres cut energy use

When Daniel Pope first floated the idea of submerging servers in liquid as an energy-efficient way to cool them a few years ago, his proposal was met with overwhelming scepticism from data centre equipment makers. But now, Pope's startup – Barcelona-based Submer – is a multimillion-dollar business, teaming up with technology giants such as Intel Corp and Dell Technologies Inc. The change in attitude reflects a pressing challenge: figuring out how to run data centres with less energy. The facilities, which support digital services ranging from TikTok to ChatGPT and Google Maps, last year consumed more electricity than Poland, Belgium and Norway combined, according to an April report by the International Energy Agency. That figure is set to more than double by 2030, driven largely by the massive computing requirements of artificial intelligence. As much as 40% of data centres' energy use goes towards cooling computing hardware, making it a ripe space for innovation. Among the possible pathways to achieve better efficiency, liquid cooling – an umbrella term that includes solutions such as Submer's – will likely help lower the data centre energy demand by more than 10%, according to Schneider Electric, a leading energy management firm. 'While 10% may not seem like a lot, consider the fact that a large AI data centre can consume over 100 megawatts of power, equivalent to about 75,000 US homes,' says Steven Carlini, who specialises in data centre solutions at Schneider Electric. 'At this scale, cutting energy usage by 10% is progress to be excited about.' Data centres' power-guzzling nature has made them unwelcome neighbours. Local authorities in Dublin last year rejected an application by Alphabet Inc's Google to build a data centre there, citing concerns over its potential impact on an already stressed electric grid. In recent months, anti-data centre signs have shown up in communities across the US. While big tech companies have spent billions of dollars sponsoring clean energy projects, their efforts to add more carbon-free electricity lag far behind what's needed. Microsoft Corp, for example, emitted 23% more carbon dioxide last year compared to 2020, due in part to a rapid expansion of data centres. Similarly, Google has seen its carbon emissions up by 48% over the past five years. A coolant that looks like baby oil To help tackle that problem, semiconductor manufacturers and data centre operators in recent years have been exploring using liquid to directly cool chips. Microsoft's Maia 100 chip, for instance, is designed to be attached to a cold plate, a metal device that's kept cool by liquid flowing beneath its surface. The tech company has also expressed interest in taking a step further, developing data centres where the whole computing hardware can operate in liquid baths. Known as immersion cooling, the technology involves plunging an entire server rack – the enclosure that houses servers, switches, routers and other computing components – into a specialised liquid that doesn't conduct electricity. The approach can be more efficient than direct-to-chip cooling, industry watchers say, but immersion cooling doesn't come without its problems, and the nascent sector has a long way to go before it can reach a meaningful scale. Submer uses a non-flammable synthetic liquid that looks like baby oil. The coolant – created at the startup's laboratory with feedstocks from the oil and gas industry – can also be made with palm oil, says Pope, the company's cofounder. Many immersion cooling liquids in the market contain PFAS, also known as 'forever chemicals' that don't break down naturally, but Pope says Submer's coolant is biodegradable. The liquid absorbs the heat generated by electronics, dissipates it through a heat exchanger built within the cooling container and then returns to the rack for the next round of cooling. The approach not only reduces energy use; it also tackles another problem. In the US, an average 100-megawatt data centre consumes about 2 million liters of water per day, a big portion of which is used for cooling, the IEA says. Intensive water demands have become an additional flashpoint between data centre developers and local communities, though some operators have started to equip data centres with water reuse or recycling systems to mitigate their environmental impact. In a way, computing hardware is like a human body: It functions best at certain temperatures. To prevent servers from overheating, many data centres deploy a potent version of air conditioning to blow chilled air across massive server rooms. But liquids can remove heat from solids more efficiently than air, and Submer says its cooling container is able to complete the same task at a higher temperature. That temperature difference, combined with the fact that immersion cooling targets the equipment that generates heat rather than an entire room, means this strategy uses less energy, Pope says. In a 2023 study funded by the Dutch government, researchers from the University of Groningen found that data centres equipped with immersion cooling used roughly 50% less energy than traditional air cooling. It also enables data centres to occupy less space, the researchers said. Too hot to handle Liquids have been used for cooling in high-voltage equipment like transformers for more than a century, but the technique was practically nonexistent in data centres until the recent computing boom started pushing conventional cooling methods to the limit. The world's appetite for high-performance AI tools not only has sparked a data centre building spree but also made it a lot harder to keep computing hardware operating at its optimal temperature, says Carlini of Schneider Electric. For instance, Nvidia's latest AI chip, the Blackwell B200 GPU, consumes almost two times more power than its predecessor, the Hopper H200. The more power a chip uses, the more heat it dissipates, and thus the more cooling it needs. And a data centre may deploy hundreds, or even thousands, of those chips. So far, Submer has deployed its cooling containers at dozens of data centres across 17 countries. The startup's revenue climbed to more than €150mil (RM 732.66mil or US $169mil) last year, up from about €600,000 (RM 2.93mil) in 2018, when its commercial sales debuted, Pope says. 'It's gone exponential in the last two years.' Other companies are also eyeing a slice of this emerging market. That list includes the Netherlands's Asperitas, Texas-based LiquidStack and Fujitsu in Japan. But even so, the market for this technology remains a fraction of what the industry spends on cooling: The global immersion cooling market reached US$400mil (RM 1.70bil) in 2023, compared to nearly US$13bil (RM 55.36bil) in global data centre cooling spending. Some hurdles stand in the way of wider adoption. While immersion cooling can help data centres lower their utility bills, it isn't cheap. Submer's system can cost as much as 25% more to deploy than the status quo, the company estimates, though it says that it's reached cost parity against air cooling at data centres with a substantial cooling demand. And for data centre operators with existing facilities, switching over to a whole different cooling technique not only requires modification of computing hardware, but also raises concerns over infrastructure safety: Can their floors withstand the weight of all the cooling containers flooded by liquids? The lack of industry standards in immersion cooling solutions adds another layer of complexity. Since data centres typically phase out servers every few years, operators would have to consider, for instance, how to ensure the cooling containers they deploy today remain compatible with future computing hardware. Soaking servers in liquid also makes it harder to do maintenance. 'Once you put them in the tubs, it's very messy to do any kind of replacement,' Carlini says. That doesn't worry Pope, who likens servers designed for air cooling to cars. 'You shouldn't put a car in the water,' he says. To that end, Submer is working with the semiconductor industry to develop 'boats' – a new generation of servers designed for the new cooling method. – Bloomberg

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store