Author Archives: Curious Cat

Malaysian Economy Continues to Expand, Budget Deficits Remain High

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Malaysia Growth Withstands Global Risks As Najib Boosts Spending

Gross domestic product rose 5.4 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier, after expanding a revised 4.9 percent in the previous quarter
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Prime Minister Najib Razak’s increased spending ahead of a general election that must be called by early 2013 has bolstered Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy
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Najib has raised civil servant salaries and pensions, waived school fees and increased handouts for the poor under a 232.8 billion-ringgit ($74 billion) budget this year as he works to boost support for his ruling coalition. In June, the government proposed to expand the annual allocation by 13.4 billion ringgit.

Growth of 5% in these economic times is very good news. One of the biggest risks to the Malaysian economy is increasing budget debt. The total debt is over 50% of GDP now, which is actually an acceptable figure (if annual deficits are small). But the annually deficient is extremely unsustainable at over 5% of GDP the last few years.

A total government debt level over 75% is a serious problem. Over 100% and it often leads to extreme financial harm. Japan, so far, has been an exception with huge debt loads being sustained. Japan has had a troubled economy the last few decades but has been surviving the extremely high debt much better than most countries would.

At the rate it is going Malaysia would join the extremely high government debt levels now seen in Europe and the USA in just a few years.

Related: Government Debt as Percent of GDP 1998-2010 for OECD – Make Malaysia My 2nd Home (MM2H) Statistics – Penang’s Economic Gains

Blogs and Forums Related to Malaysia

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When I was considering moving to Malaysia one of the things I tried to find were blogs and forums to learn from others what experiences they were having. And living in Johor Bahru now I still seek such information. I have a directory of Malaysian blogs and forums with quite a few good sources of information.

Some of my favorites are:

Hopefully you will find some of the many wonderful blogs interesting and useful.

This is an interesting documentary on recent USA graduates teaching English in Malaysia; via the Fulbright Malaysia blog.

Inconsiderate Behavior

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Moving to a new culture you have to be willing to adapt and accept things different from what you may be familiar with. Most everything in Malaysia I have no problem adapting to. The biggest thing I find very annoying consistently is noise.

Noise at my condo – loud noise from temples (very loud bells, loud sound systems), firecrackers (a alot – early in the morning at 4 AM this last week over 30 loud gunshot style ones for example, which is the worst but alot of firecrackers at less unreasonable hours too). And very loud speakers blasting on the street or in malls. But that is something that is just the way it is. I can accept it and just understand that it annoys me, but you don’t get to have everything the way you want.

My philosophy is much more that: you limit very much things you do that are inflicted on other (once what you do infringes upon others rights you make consideration for others primary). I notice in Malaysia the more primary thing seems to be the willingness to just tolerate whatever others are doing. Which is a good trait to have, if you don’t let things bother you, you are much happier. I think the in West people think of Asia in general as people being more considerate, it seems to me it is really instead people being more tolerant. Just accepting that things are the way they are and if you are not powerful you can’t expect others to worry about your desires.

The condo below me started massive heavy construction last week – without any notice. I find this incredibly inconsiderate. The effect is essentially like having someone jackhammering in the room next to you (the only different in the heavy construction being inside my condo right now I have no dust). The idea that I should be given warning of such a massive disruption to the ability to use my condo seems foreign. The condo office won’t even respond about how much longer I can expect to have similar disruption (4 days last week this happened – Thursday was fine for some reason). My rental agent just says I am suppose to keep begging the condo office and maybe eventually they will tell me something.

I don’t really understand this attitude. It just seems so silly. The construction requires advance approval from the management office. But the management office gives no warning to those that will be impacted. And they don’t even respond to requests for information.

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Taxi Between Johor Bahru and Singapore

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Iskandar Regional Development Authority chief executive officer Ismail Ibrahim on transportation improvements:

The land transport authorites of Singapore and Malaysia are studying a rapid transit system (RTS) link between Singapore and Johor Baru. The architecture and engineering consultancy consists of two phases. Phase one is expected to be completed by year-end.The Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar will decide on the option to be adopted in phase two. Taxi services between Johor Baru and Singapore are also being improved.

Effective June 1, commuters taking cross-border taxis will be able to board and alight anywhere on the domestic leg of the journey.

For example, a commuter that takes a Singapore cross-border taxi can board or alight anywhere in Singapore. Similarly, a passenger taking a Malaysia cross-border taxi can board or alight anywhere in Malaysia.

But commuters need to board and alight at the designated terminals when they are not on the domestic leg, i.e. a commuter that takes a Singapore cross-border taxi can only board and alight at PasarBakti terminal in Johor Baru and likewise, a Malaysia cross-border taxi can only pick up or drop off commuters at the Ban San Street terminal in Singapore.

The transportation improvements are critical to the success of Iskandar-Singapore success. Currently the delays on the current links are bad and increasing. It seems that the estimates for how much traffic would be generating have been far too low. The addition of the second link is recent and yet the delays keep getting longer on average days (not even holidays). This seems to me to be a serious problem, especially when you consider that in the next 2 years there will be substantial additions in Iskandar, Malaysia that would increase cross border traffic. But with the delays already unacceptably long it seems there will be serious problems.

If there are process improvement and manpower adjusts that can help address these problems they should be a top priority (and why they haven’t been done already would be very puzzling). It seems to me a 3rd link is needed as soon as possible. In addition to the MRT and an expansion to the existing causeway capacity.

The tweaks to allowing taxis to pick up passengers anywhere at the first leg of the journey (which is my guess at what is said above though I am not sure really) is good thing. This doesn’t do anything about capacity issues or long delays at the links but it is an improvement in the previous operating process (which required taxi pickup at 1 or 2 specified spots only in order to cross the links). Hopefully the restriction on dropping people off can be eliminated soon also.

I don’t really understand the sense of the taxi process. There are cars that will pickup and drop off anywhere (for crossing the links) but are not painted up as taxis. I don’t quite understand the value of having different rules for cars depending on if they have meters inside or are considered something else (but do the exact same things a taxi does, but probably can’t pick up passengers on the street – probably they are only allowed to respond to phone calls).

Anyway, at least the taxi process is improving.

Related: Taxis in Johor Bahru – Taking the Bus Between Johor Bahru and Singapore – Johor Bahru Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine Complex (CIQ)

Minimum Housing Prices for Foreigners Investing In Malaysia Rise to RM 1,000,000

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Excerpt from a speech by the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, 19 April, 2012:

As a first step to protect the interests of local Malaysians, the state government is proposing to increase the minimum limit for foreign purchases of all properties from the existing level of RM 500,000 to RM1 million with a higher limit of RM 2 million for landed properties only in Penang island and retaining the present RM 500,000 limit for Permanent Residents.

In 2010 and 2011 there were 774 and 890 property transactions involving foreigners. These transactions constitute only 2.98% and 2.26% respectively of the total number of transations in Penang. However to protect the interests of locals to ensure that they enjoy priority for less expensive properties, this restriction will help to provide a level playing field since foreigners have the advantage of a higher currency.

The Penang state government stresses that we welcome foreign participation in our economy including our property market. The state government feels that foreign participation can be profitable to both Penangites and foreigners in the higher end market where they can add value by helping Penang to transform itself into an international and intelligent city.

We would like to get feedback and opinions from NGOs, property developers, foreigners and the public on this proposal. The state government hopes to implement this proposal the earliest by 1 June 2012 or the latest by 1 July 2012.

It would be good to know what percentage of the sales from RM 500,000 to RM 1,000,000 for condos, and RM 2,000,000 for landed properties were purchases by foreigners. But it seems like an overly drastic measure given a 2.5% rate of foreign purchasers. To slow the rise in prices I believe increasing the downpayment requirements (including the extremely minimal downpayment requirements on housing in the process of being built. To be effective this should be done on all purchases (not just foreigners).

Without more focused data on the foreign purchases in the ranges being targeted however it is hard to determine what the impact of any measure could possibly be.

Participants in MM2H (as well as permanent residents) are permitted to buy/own 2 properties at the RM 500,000 minimum level; which could definitely increase the applications for that program. That could be one of the reasons this action was taken.

Related: Penang’s Economic Gains – Penang Condo Market – Considerations for Investing in Iskandar Housing

CIMB Takes Aggressive Investment Bank Actions

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CIMB is one of Malaysia large and highly rated banks (several Malaysian banks have yet to fall prey to the level of problems those in Europe and the USA have). Investment banking is a very tricky area. There are huge unnecessary profits to banks such as Goldman Sachs taking from the current investment banking situation (which is just a lousy system that pours billions into a few banks for activities not worth close to what they take).

However the USA and European banks have often set up compensation structures that encourage bad risks, and bad pricing, and bad service to customers. If CIMB falls into that trap they almost certainly would fall to the same problems all other investment banks have fallen to – which required massive taxpayer funded bailouts.

Hopefully CIMB is not going into the gambling with huge leverage aspect of “investment banking” that most of the USA and European companies have made the main factor in their operations.

If CIMB just takes a simple approach to managing investment financing deals they can take huge profits and give customers huge savings off the current lousy deals they are offered by the current limited investment banking options. I would be worried though. The temptations to create huge cash incentives that will result in the company taking on huge risks and undermining customers have been impossible for most investment banks to avoid. If the investment bank is attached to a normal bank then you run into all sorts of risks of taxpayer funded bailouts.

Related: PayPal Opens Regional Support Center in Malaysia – Malaysian Residence Pass for Talented Expats

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

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The Kuala Lumpur Birdpark is in downtown Kuala Lumpur right next to the Museum of Islamic Art.

It isn’t very obvious how to walk from one to the other but I was able to do so. I would guess I walked maybe 2km – the problem is getting to the entrance of the bird park (I think the properties actually touch each other).

photo of pathway in Kuala Lumpur Birdpark

Kuala Lumpur Birdpark

All of the photos in this post were taken by John Hunter and can be used with a link back to this post.

Crested Goshawk

Crested Goshawk (Lang Sikap)

If you like seeing birds and you have time in Kuala Lumpur I think the birdpark is worth a visit. But it really isn’t so special and other things may be a more valuable use for your time. If you have time and want an outdoor activity though it is fine (for example if you are living in Kuala Lumpor or staying for an extended period). The park is a bit run down and it is a bit sad how small the enclosures are for some of the birds.

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Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman Indian Hindu Glass Temple in Johor Bahru

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The Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman temple in Johor Bahru (CBD) is an Indian temple with walls covered in glass tiles. This Hindu temple is located in the Central Business District of Johor Bahru. It is a very interesting and beautiful temple. The temple actually was first established in 1922 but the current glass temple was completed in 2009.

Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman Hindu Temple

Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman Temple, Johor Bahru

Over 95% of the temple is embellished by a mosaic of 300,000 pieces of red, blue, yellow, green, purple and white glass. The centrepiece in the Athma Lingam sanctuary is a lotus for Lord Shiva, on which devotees can pour rose water and perform their prayers.

Johor Bahru is not well known as a tourist spot. I think this temple is a great idea for tourists looking for something to visit in Johor Bahru. It likely won’t take more than 30 minutes, but it is quite captivating and offers something to remember for Johor Bahru.

Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman Indian Glass Temple

Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman Indian Glass Temple

Village Briyani Indian Restaurant and Danga City Mall are quite close. If you time your visit close to lunch time I recommend eating lunch at Village Briyani (it is walking distance, but a bit confusing to find so make sure you have a clear idea on your map of where it is located – you can call and get directions I would think).

Related: Johor Bahru Zoo – Tourist Stuff in Kuala Lumpur – Big Lizards in Johor Bahru CBD

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