On 7 October 2022 the Malaysian Minister of Finance tabled the Budget 2023 which covers the following 3 agendas, each supported by the agenda’s individual core focus and strategies:
• Responsive Budget – to expand fiscal policy
• Responsible Budget – to ensure financial sustainability of the Government
• Reformist Budget – to implement reforms and enact policies that could adapt to new norms
The comprehensive list of objectives within the Budget 2023 among others, is to strengthen economic recovery post COVID-19 and numerous incentives and action plans had been laid out to achieve these objectives. This alert focuses on the Budget 2023 highlights that would have an impact on the projects and infrastructure industries in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Government had, on 19 September 2022, launched the National Energy Policy 2022-2040 (“NEP”) with the following objectives:
• Enhancing macroeconomic resilience and energy security
• Achieving social equitability and affordability
• Ensuring environmental sustainability
In order to achieve these objectives, numerous action plans have been developed and laid out in the NEP and this client alert aims to provide an overview of the Low Carbon Aspiration 2040 initiative and highlight key action plans that would be of interest to all types of investors and companies intending to comply with environmental, social and governance requirements.

Cross-border lending in Asia Pacific continues to grow steadily despite external factors such as COVID-19. While the region is not immune to external factors, borrowing volumes for financial institutions, credit funds and other market participants remain high in Asia Pacific. Considering the demographics of many of the nations, the various financial centers and many market participants investing more substantially in some of those financial centers, we remain optimistic that lending activity across Asia Pacific will continue to grow.

The Malaysian Ministry of Housing and Local Government has announced that the request for proposal (RFP) for a waste-to-energy project in Sungai Udang, Malacca (“WtE Project”) will be released on 18 February 2021. Consistent with the previous RFP for the waste-to-energy project located in Bukit Payong that was issued in August 2020, the WtE Project will be carried out on a public-private partnership basis. We understand the WtE Project is near to a current sanitary landfill and the driver is to reduce waste disposal rate at the landfill.

The WtE Project is the second of the six proposed waste-to-energy projects that the federal government of Malaysia is planning to develop by 2021.

The Malaysian Ministry of Housing and Local Government had on 27 July 2020 issued an announcement for the request for proposal (“RFP”) for a waste-to-energy project in Bukit Payong, Johor on a public-private partnership basis (“WtE Project”). The WtE Project is one of the 6 expected waste to energy projects that the federal government of Malaysia is planning to develop by 2021.

Economies all around the world are experiencing an unprecedented economic slowdown amidst rising concerns of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and Malaysian companies including large conglomerates are not spared. As it stands, the Movement Control Order (MCO)in Malaysia, which is in effect from 18 March to 31 March 2020, has severely…

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a historic marshalling of capital and a remarkable geopolitical foray into establishing and strengthening multinational trade corridors. It continues to evolve and expand with more than 130 countries now reported to have signed BRI agreements, including Central America and the Pacific, far beyond…