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  • Malaysia Soars to 15th Spot in Global Economic Competitiveness, Credits Boom in AI and Semiconductor Industry

    Malaysia Soars to 15th Spot in Global Economic Competitiveness, Credits Boom in AI and Semiconductor Industry

    In the most recent 2026 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, Malaysia’s standing significantly improved, moving up eight spots to claim the 15th place. This notable advancement represents the country’s greatest leap in recent years. The International Institute for Management Development, the authority that published the ranking, attributed Malaysia’s enhanced position to advancements across all four pillars of competitiveness.

    The four pillars considered in the ranking include economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. Malaysia demonstrated remarkable progress in all these areas. The country obtained 4th place worldwide for economic performance, while government efficiency ascended 11 places, reaching the 14th position. Business efficiency moved up 16 spots to the 16th position, and infrastructure experienced a slight boost, improving two spots to rank 33rd.

    An Examination of Sub-factors

    Looking deeper into the sub-factors, Malaysia’s domestic economy ranking ascended four places, achieving the 11th position, and the international trade ranking rose one spot to the 5th position. One significant leap was observed in the international investment sector, which climbed seven places to reach the 19th position.

    The IMD ranking evaluates 70 economies based on the aforementioned four fundamental pillars. Malaysia’s consistent improvement is evidenced by its steady ascent over the years. In the previous year, the nation jumped 11 places to secure the 23rd position among 69 economies. This was a marked improvement from the 34th position it held among 67 economies in 2024.

    According to economists, the critical factors contributing to Malaysia’s elevated ranking include a robust economic foundation, heightened trade competitiveness, improved public and business sector performance, and expanding opportunities within the technology sector.

    Stephen Innes, Managing Partner at SPI Asset Management, believes that Malaysia’s substantial boost in competitiveness is not merely indicative of a short-term recovery. Instead, he points to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the semiconductor industry as key drivers of this progress. Innes notes that Malaysia’s advantageous positioning across the electrical and electronics supply chain, coupled with its appeal in attracting investment in advanced packaging and data centers, makes it a natural beneficiary of global supply chain diversification.

    Questions & Answers

    What factors led to Malaysia’s improved ranking in the 2026 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking?
    Malaysia’s improvement is attributed to advancements in economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. The rapid growth in artificial intelligence and the semiconductor industry were also highlighted as key contributors.

    How has Malaysia’s ranking evolved over the years?
    Malaysia has shown steady improvement in its standing, moving from 34th out of 67 economies in 2024, to 23rd out of 69 in 2025, and finally to 15th out of 70 economies in 2026.

    What sub-factors saw notable improvement in Malaysia’s ranking?
    Significant improvements were observed in the country’s domestic economy, international trade, and international investment rankings.

  • DBS Exec to Lead Carbon Credits Exchange

    DBS Exec to Lead Carbon Credits Exchange

    He was most recently DBS’ group chief sustainability officer, responsible for developing the bank’s sustainability framework and driving sustainability initiatives.

    Climate Impact X (CIX) has announced the appointment of Mikkel Larsen as chief executive officer, effective immediately, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

    Larsen has been interim CEO of the platform, a joint venture between DBS Bank, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Standard Chartered, and Temasek, since May 2021.

    Before his nine years at DBS, Larsen spent over seven years at UBS, leaving as CFO of Asia-Pacific, and previously held roles at Citibank in London, and KPMG.

    In his new role, Larsen will oversee all day-to-day operations for CIX, including collaborating with its ecosystem of technology partners to build up its Project Marketplace and Exchange platforms as well as curating a pipeline of high-quality carbon credit projects to feature on its platforms. He will also drive the company’s culture, values, and behavior while building up a high-performing team passionate about catalyzing scalable sustainable solutions.

    The carbon market is going through a transition. We have a unique opportunity to establish a trusted market that can both help preserve the crucially important existing carbon sinks whilst developing new ones, Larsen said.

    CIX said it completed a pilot auction in October of a curated portfolio of high-quality carbon credits, where it successfully cleared 170,000 tonnes of carbon credits from eight recognized NCS projects spanning across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

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  • Tidal launches Credits feature to highlight the people behind your favorite music

    Tidal launches Credits feature to highlight the people behind your favorite music

    Tidal has just announced it’s doing something nice for those behind the music industry who aren’t in the spotlight: songwriters, producers, engineers, band members and studio musicians, background vocalists, and programmers.

    The music streaming service launched a new Credits feature that will highlight those persons who contribute to the success of a song or album. Users of the music streaming service will be able to filter the tracklist according to these persons’ roles on tracks (i.e. composer or producer), release date, track title, or artist.

    Not everyone who contributes to the success of a song or album is given the proper credit, which is why TIDAL is introducing its new interactive Credits feature — to highlight those important behind-the-scenes contributors, while also displaying the other projects on which they’ve worked.

    The Credits feature comes with different role categories which can be used to filter your favorite music: songwriter, production, musician, and misc. The default setting to sort a tracklist is by popularity, but users will be able to change that.

  • Razer aims to take over MOL

    Razer aims to take over MOL

    Gaming company Razer aims to take over Southeast Asian virtual gaming credits and e-payment platform MOL Global at a valuation of US$100 million.

    Razer already holds a nearly 35 per cent stake in the platform.

    Razer co-founder/chief Tan Min-Liang says the acquisition will enable Razer to take over one of Southeast Asia’s largest e-payment networks, deepen its presence in the “under-served” region, and create one of the world’s largest virtual-credit platforms for gamers.

    In August, Tan took up Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Twitter challenge for an e-payment proposal to turn the state into a cashless society. The following month, Razer proposed to develop and deploy an e-payment system, RazerPay, for which it would commit S$10 million in seed funding.

    Tan this week said the system would also enable cashless capabilities in Southeast Asia as well. It would be complementary and accretive to Razer’s gaming business.

    Razer, which is dual-headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, says it will pay about US$61 million to acquire 65.1 per cent of MOL’s issued share capital.

    The acquisition will be by way of a statutory merger, upon which MOL will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Razer.