It has been a couple of months since Bank Negara Malaysia rolled out its MediAsas pilot programme, previously called the Base MHIT (medical and health insurance/takaful) Plan. The pilot — involving staff of selected statutory bodies, government-linked companies, and small and medium enterprises, six of the largest insurers and takaful operators in the country as well as 10 preferred in-network hospitals in the Klang Valley — began at end-July and will end this month. Nationwide launch is slated for January 2027.

Tong's Portfolio - Fixing medical cost inflation: Change the rules, change the behaviour

Most debates about democracy ask whether democracy is superior to the alternatives. Supporters point to freedom, representation and legitimacy. Critics point to voter ignorance, populism, short-termism and political dysfunction. Others look at countries governed by technocrats or strong states and ask whether expertise and competence might sometimes produce better outcomes than electoral politics.

Tong's Portfolio: Who governs the governors?

For years, the people building the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence systems have warned us that AI could eventually become dangerous. Yet, they continued to race ahead, building companies now worth hundreds of billions — and, in some cases, associated with technology groups worth trillions — of US dollars each.

Tong's Portfolio - First, win the AI race. Then, stop the race?

Malaysia’s economy grew 6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026. That is the second-fastest pace of growth ...

Tong's Portfolio - Malaysia’s economy is growing faster than expected — but the people are not feeling it. Why?

The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (AI) has been extraordinary. Just a year ago, generative AI was still largely used as a chatbot — useful for answering questions, summarising documents or generating snippets of code. Today, tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex can operate much more like agents: they can read files, write and modify codes, run programs, debug errors and carry out multi-step tasks with relatively little human intervention.

Tong's Portfolio - AI is changing investing — but not its rules

Every investment is a bet.

When investors buy shares because they expect corporate earnings to exceed expectations, they are betting. When traders buy oil futures because they believe conflict in the Middle East will disrupt supply, they are betting. Venture capitalists funding an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up are betting. Banks financing a new factory are betting.

Tong's Portfolio - The political economy of gambling: Who decides which bets society accepts?

Is rising leverage in the US equity market combined with elevated valuations a warning sign for investors? Per FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), total US investor margin debt just reached an all-time high of US$1.5 trillion in June, up by nearly 50% from this time last year and more than double from the start of 2024.

Tong's Portfolio - Leverage won’t cause the next sell-off ... but it could make it worse

Malaysian initial public offerings (IPOs) do not generally perform well beyond their first few days of trading and, sometimes, not even during that period. We have examined and written extensively about the reasons for this disappointing performance, including a valuation methodology that does a poor job of valuing companies because it is backward-looking, focusing on historical profits rather than future growth potential.

Tong's Portfolio - Public markets, private gains: Why the best years of growth increasingly happen before companies go public

The National Automotive Policy (NAP) 2020 and the New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP) 2030 envision Malaysia as an automotive production and export hub for next-generation vehicles, targeting Asean and the wider Asian market. This dovetails with the nation’s broader industrial development plan to raise economic complexity, create high-value job opportunities and deepen domestic linkages.

Tong's Portfolio - The road not taken: Lessons from Malaysia’s automotive industry

Running frontier artificial intelligence (AI) is not cheap. For a time, “token maxxing” was the corporate mantra du jour. Earlier this year, companies encouraged employees to maximise their AI usage by consuming as many tokens as possible. Tokens, in this context, refer to the basic unit of computing. The assumption was that greater AI utilisation would translate into greater productivity — never mind that the relationship between AI usage and output quality is not necessarily linear.

Tong's Portfolio - Open-weight AI: Who wins when intelligence gets cheap?

The printing press industrialised ideas. The internet collapsed the cost of distributing them. Artificial intelligence (AI) is now collapsing the cost of producing them.

Tong's Portfolio - The last monopoly: Trusted judgement in an age of infinite intelligence (Part 9 of 9)

The future of media in the AI age (Part 7)”, published last week, was likely to have been too theoretical and abstract, maybe even futuristic, to many readers. But the fact is that artificial intelligence (AI) is already here and will hugely impact media. Those media companies that successfully navigated the challenge from social media may not all be also successful navigating AI.

Tong’s portfolio - The future of media in the AI age (Part 8 of 9): Trusted judgement is the edge

Parts 1 to 6 of “The Future of Media in the Digital Age” examined how search engines and social media disrupted traditional media — capturing attention, data and advertising economics. Many publishers mistook “going digital” for transformation. It wasn’t. Free content without a viable monetisation model hollowed out the industry.

Tong’s portfolio - The future of media in the AI age (Part 7/9): The interpretation economy

Since the start of the US-Israel-Iran war, we have been inundated with near-daily predictions of an imminent energy catastrophe by news commentators, analysts and experts alike — pointing to the loss of critical oil supply passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly 20% of global oil flows. Sensationalism sells. Many politiacians, too, have been quick to lay the blame of (pre-existing) rising cost of living and affordability issues on the crisis.

Tong's Portfolio - Oil futures market was right, as expected

Seventeen people, including three children, were killed in a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, a day after US President Donald Trump announced a deal to lift sanctions on Russian diesel in a major setback for Kyiv.

Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia kills 17, a day after Trump eases diesel sanctions on Moscow

Police detained more than 2,000 protesters and the founder of the "Cockroach" youth movement in Delhi on Saturday as security forces locked down parts of the capital to thwart a rally demanding the resignation of India's election chief.

India detains thousands, locks down Delhi to foil election chief protest

The Johor government has decided to extend the closure of all schools and educational institutions in the state for five days, from Oct 12 to 16, due to the haze.

Johor extends closure of schools, educational institutions due to haze until Oct 16

The RM1.1 billion allocation to enhance the operational capabilities of law enforcement agencies, including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), reflects the government's strong commitment to combating crime, including corruption, and strengthening national governance.

Budget 2027: RM1.1 bil allocation shows govt's commitment to combat corruption, crime and governance — MACC

Penang is ready to work with the federal government to establish the National Integrated Care Centres of Excellence (Nice) in the state as part of efforts to prepare for an ageing population.

Penang ready to host Nice, prepare for ageing society — Chow

A special tax deduction incentive for the Ihsan Food Bank Initiative (i-FB) under Budget 2027 is expected to encourage greater participation by strategic partners, including the corporate sector, in strengthening the food bank ecosystem.

Budget 2027: i-FB tax incentive encourages corporate sector participation — Armizan

he provision of better infrastructure facilities is expected to enhance Negeri Sembilan’s attractiveness as an investment destination, in line with the ongoing development of Malaysia Vision Valley 2.0 (MVV 2.0).

Budget 2027: Better infrastructure boosts Negeri Sembilan's investment, improve access — MB

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has established a special team to review and re-examine corruption allegations amounting to RM350,000 involving one of its senior officers.

Special team set up to review and re-examine corruption allegations involving a senior officer — MACC

The government will continue to focus on prudent fiscal management in Budget 2027 to return benefits to the people and reduce cost-of-living pressures, especially for low-income households, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Budget 2027: Fiscal consolidation continues, cost of living priority for the people — Anwar 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday stressed that Budget 2027 is a covenant between the country and its leadership and the people, which must be implemented with full trust and integrity.

Budget 2027 is govt’s covenant with the people, must be fulfilled in earnest — Anwar 

China’s passenger vehicle retail sales fell 24% in September from a year earlier to 1.702 million units, while new-energy vehicle sales declined 12% to 1.141 million units, according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association.

China passenger vehicle retail sales drop 24% in September

Malaysia must build its capability in quantum technology starting now, particularly in talent development, research and development (R&amp;D) and infrastructure, to ensure the country is ready to leverage this strategic technology in the future, says Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang.

Malaysia must build quantum tech capability now — Chang

he provision of better infrastructure facilities is expected to enhance Negeri Sembilan’s attractiveness as an investment destination, in line with the ongoing development of Malaysia Vision Valley 2.0 (MVV 2.0).

The Johor government has decided to extend the closure of all schools and educational institutions in the state for five days, from Oct 12 to 16, due to the haze.

Typically called into action when poor countries get mired in debt, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be confronted this week with mounting signs of trouble in the wealthiest ones.

Rich countries are now on front lines as world’s risk map shifts

Penang is ready to work with the federal government to establish the National Integrated Care Centres of Excellence (Nice) in the state as part of efforts to prepare for an ageing population.

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 10): The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (Samenta) has hailed Budget 2027 as an “SME Budget”, citing measures to ease cash flow pressures and lower operating costs for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Samenta hails Budget 2027 as ‘SME Budget’

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has established a special team to review and re-examine corruption allegations amounting to RM350,000 involving one of its senior officers.

Germany said on Saturday it would maintain sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine following US President Donald Trump's announcement that his administration had temporarily lifted US sanctions on Russian fuel.

Germany sticks to Russian sanctions despite after Trump announcement on diesel

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday stressed that Budget 2027 is a covenant between the country and its leadership and the people, which must be implemented with full trust and integrity.

The RM1.1 billion allocation to enhance the operational capabilities of law enforcement agencies, including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), reflects the government's strong commitment to combating crime, including corruption, and strengthening national governance.

The government will continue to focus on prudent fiscal management in Budget 2027 to return benefits to the people and reduce cost-of-living pressures, especially for low-income households, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

A special tax deduction incentive for the Ihsan Food Bank Initiative (i-FB) under Budget 2027 is expected to encourage greater participation by strategic partners, including the corporate sector, in strengthening the food bank ecosystem.

Seventeen people, including three children, were killed in a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, a day after US President Donald Trump announced a deal to lift sanctions on Russian diesel in a major setback for Kyiv.

Fourteen-year-old Eden suffered a broken jaw and multiple smashed teeth when he was struck by a tear gas canister directed towards him at close range by a police officer last week during student protests in France, his parents and family lawyer said.

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