Institutional Investor (July 18)
“The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio for emerging market equities is 15x, compared to 27x for those in developed markets and 34x for those in the U.S.” At just above 10x, “China is trading at a significant discount,” but investors can also easily “steer clear of China.” Other emerging market opportunities “worth considering” include Korea, Brazil, Malaysia, Hungary, Thailand, Mexico, and much of Latin America where P/E ratios range from 10x to 25x.
Tags: Brazil, China, Cyclically adjusted, Developed markets, Discount, Emerging markets, Equities, Hungary, Investors, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, P/E ratio, Thailand
The Economist (August 14)
Japan’s “financial heft in South-East Asia” is vastly understated. It still ranks as the biggest “investor in the region’s infrastructure projects.” While “China’s financial reach overseas attracts enormous attention, when it comes to infrastructure in South-East Asia, Japan is still very much the leader…. In total, it has $259bn invested in unfinished projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam…compared with China’s $157bn.”
Tags: China, Financial heft, Indonesia, Infrastructure projects, Investor, Japan, Leader, Malaysia, Overseas, South-east Asia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam
WARC (December 4)
Fully 45% of Malaysia’s population is made up of Millennials, “many of whom are digital natives.” As a result, “businesses looking to expand in Malaysia need to offer digital wallet payment options, as these cover a much greater proportion of the population than credit cards.” The diverse e-money options are dominated by outsiders, only 5 of the 46 e-money licenses “have gone to players in the traditional banking space.”
Tags: Banking, Credit cards, Digital natives, Digital wallet, E-money, Malaysia, Millennials, Population
BBC (May 10)
“Mahathir Mohamad is on course to become the world’s oldest elected leader at 92, after a shock victory in Malaysia’s bitterly fought election” over his former protégé Najib Razak also “ousted the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957.”
Tags: BN coalition, Elected, Election, Independence, Leader, Mahathir, Malaysia, Najib Razak, Oldest, Shock victory
New York Times (May 24)
For today’s dictator, “soaring approval ratings are a more cost-effective path to dominance than terror.” While a few violent dictators still remain, there has been a sea change in methods. “A new brand of authoritarian government has evolved that is better adapted to an era of global media, economic interdependence and information technology.” So-called ‘soft’ dictators like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Peru’s Alberto Fujimori and Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad “concentrate power, stifling opposition and eliminating checks and balances, while using hardly any violence.”
Tags: Approval, Authoritarian, Cost-effective, Erdogan, Fujimori, Government, IT, Mahathir, Malaysia, Media, Opposition, Peru, Soft dictators, Terror, Turkey, Violence
Time (April 25)
Time calls it “the China Effect.” As China prospers and internal demand generates an ever larger share of economic growth, low-skill manufacturing is being shifted to other Asian countries, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand. “After ferociously sucking jobs and investment out of Southeast Asia over the past two decades, the China Effect is now lifting once declining industrial hubs like Penang out of their long economic slump.” The era with China as the world’s factory is beginning to come to an end.
Time calls it “the China Effect.” As China prospers and internal demand generates an ever larger share of economic growth, low-skill manufacturing is being shifted to other Asian countries, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand. “After ferociously sucking jobs and investment out of Southeast Asia over the past two decades, the China Effect is now lifting once declining industrial hubs like Penang out of their long economic slump.” The era with China as the world’s factory is beginning to come to an end.
Tags: Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Manufacturing, Thailand, Vitenam
