Chinese man earns green beret

Setapak lad saluted for being first Chinese commando in ...

Chinese accountancy graduate earns coveted Green Beret

PETALING JAYA: Leftenan Muda Chan Ming Youn beat all the odds to achieve his aim to become a member of one of the world’s toughest military units – Gerup Gerak Khas or Special Service Group.

The 25-year-old from Setapak, who graduated from Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), earned his “green beret” on Sunday after passing 12 weeks of harsh and gruelling training.

“My parents were deadset against me joining the military, otherwise I would have done so soon after my SPM. They wanted me to get a degree and a job related to what I studied.

“I had constant arguments with them when I insisted on joining the armed forces because it is my childhood dream.

“I want to serve and protect my country in the most noble way I know,” he said in an interview yesterday.

To appease his parents, Chan, who is the youngest of three siblings, took up accountancy at TAR UMT and obtained a bachelor’s degree. While studying for his degree, he signed up as a reservist with the Territorial Army Regiment to fulfil his yearning to be a serviceman.

As the longing grew with his stint as an army volunteer, he decided to apply to join the army as a cadet officer in 2022.

Upon passing the interview and undergoing regular army training for nine months, he was briefly posted to the 2nd Royal Ranger Regiment before he set his mind to enrol in February as a candidate in the commando unit, which is known through its Malay acronym GGK.

He was then put through the GGK’s basic training, an exercise that determines whether a candidate qualifies to make it as an elite member of the special forces before he is assigned to undergo other specialised skills in weaponry, parajumping and close-quarters combat to become a full-fledged commando.

Recounting his experience during his 12-week training stint at the Sungai Udang Army Camp in Melaka, Chan said it was the toughest moments he had ever undergone in his life despite his love for the military.

Soon after the exercise began, his body was in immense pain and aching all over and then riddled with blisters, bruises and torn skin.

He said the most difficult task he faced was a 160km run with other recruits that left the soles of his feet inflamed and torn.

“In the jungle, we were to survive on very little food, and went hungry. When we ran out of supplies, we had to feed ourselves with whatever we could find in the forest such as monitor lizards and pythons.

“It was beyond what I had ever imagined.

“The training will break you both mentally and physically but that is what it takes to be an elite member of the special forces and to make us resilient.

“I almost lost my mind and had thoughts of giving up halfway through the training but the comradeship of my fellow recruits and the constant support of my trainers kept me going.

“The camaraderie was amazing. We were united as a unit and there was no differentiating anyone by race.

“We were like brothers who watched over each other’s backs and ensured we stayed sane. This was the greatest thing I will never forget,” he said.

On Sunday, Chan received his green beret, blue lanyard and a dagger, which qualified him as commando, from 21st GGK commander Mejar-Jen Adi Ridzwan Abdullah in a graduation ceremony at the Sungai Udang camp.

Chan said his parents who were present were pleased to see him in good health.

“I know they are proud of me although all they asked me was if I had eaten and in good health. Those words were enough to affirm their support.

“During the tough training, my thoughts were also on my parents who had raised me and I just did not want to let them down.

“That too kept me motivated,” he said.

When contacted, Mejar-Jen Adi Ridzwan said Chan is the first Malaysian Chinese in decades to pass out as a commando.

“He had applied to undergo the tough training moreover, and was not assigned to it. This is very admirable and he proved himself very well.

“The last time we had Malaysian Chinese commandos was almost 20 years ago. There were many of them in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Hence, we are seeing a revival of Malaysian Chinese returning to serve the army like how their predecessors did.

“We are happy to see this and we hope more non-Malays will join the armed forces,” he said.

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Do BMI letters help?

A us state experimented with sending parents letters about their child’s body mass index in an effort to fight obesity.

SIXTH-GRADE (equivalent to Year Six) boys were lining up to be measured in the Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School library in Arkansas, United States.

As they took off their shoes and emptied their pockets, they joked about being the tallest. “It’s an advantage,” said one. “You can play basketball,” said another.

A taller dude can get more girls!” a third student offered. Everyone laughed.

What they didn’t joke about was their weight.

Anndrea Veasley, the school’s registered nurse, had them stand one by one.

One boy, Christopher, slumped as she measured his height. “Chin up slightly,” she said. Then Veasley asked him to stand backward on a scale so he didn’t see the numbers.

She silently noted his height as just shy of four feet, seven inches (139.7 centimetres) and his weight as 115.6 pounds (52.4 kilogrammes).

His parents would later be among thousands to receive a letter beginning, “Many children in Arkansas have health problems caused by their weight.”

The letter includes each student’s measurements, as well as their calculated body mass index (BMI), an indicator of body fat.

The BMI number categorises each child as “underweight”, “normal”, “overweight” or “obese”.

Christopher’s BMI of 25.1 put him in the range of obesity.

> Is it really useful?

In 2003, Arkansas became the first US state to send home BMI reports about all students as part of a broader anti-obesity initiative.

> But in the 20 years since, the state’s childhood obesity rates have risen to nearly 24% from 21%, reflecting a similar, albeit higher, trajectory than national US rates.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the state obesity rate hit a high of more than 26%.

Still, at least 23 US states followed Arkansas’ lead and required height and weight assessments of students.

Some have since scaled back their efforts after parents raised concerns.

One school district in Wyoming used to include a child’s BMI score in report cards, a practice it has since stopped.

Ohio allows districts to opt in, and last year, just two of 611 school districts reported BMI information to the state.

And Massachusetts stopped sending letters home.

Even Arkansas changed its rules to allow parents to opt out.

Multiple studies have shown that these reports, or “fat letters” as they’re sometimes mockingly called, have had no effect on weight loss.

And some nutritionists, psychologists and parents have criticised the letters, saying they can lead to weight stigma and eating disorders.

BMI as a tool has come under scrutiny too, because it does not consider differences across racial and ethnic groups, sex, gender, and age.

In 2023, the American Medical Association called the BMI “imperfect” and suggested it be used alongside other tools such as visceral fat measurements, body composition and genetic factors.

Meant for awareness

All that highlights a question: What purpose do BMI school measurements and letters serve?

Nearly 20% of American children were classified as obese just before the Covid-19 pandemic – up from only 5% some 50 years ago – and lockdowns made the problem worse.

It’s unclear what sorts of interventions might reverse the trend.

Dr Joe Thompson, a paediatrician who helped create Arkansas’ programme and now leads the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, said BMI letters are meant to be a screening tool, not a diagnostic test, to make parents aware if their child is at risk of developing serious health issues such as heart disease, diabetes and respiratory problems.

> Sharing this information with them is critical, he said, given that many don’t see it as a problem because obesity is so prevalent.

Arkansas is also a rural state, so many families don’t have easy access to paediatricians, he said.

Dr Thompson said he’s heard from many parents who have acted on the letters.

“To this day, they are still our strongest advocates,” he said.

The programme also led to new efforts to reduce obesity.

Some school districts in Arkansas have instituted “movement breaks”, while others have added vegetable gardens, cooking classes and walking trails.

One district sought funding for bicycles.

The state does not study whether these efforts are working.

Researchers say the BMI data also serves an important purpose in illuminating population-level trends, even if it isn’t helpful to individuals.

Parents are generally supportive of weighing children in school, and the letters have helped increase their awareness of obesity, research shows.

At the same time, few parents followed up with a healthcare provider or made changes to their child’s diet or physical activity after getting a BMI letter, several other studies have found.

In what is considered the gold standard study of BMI letters, published in 2020, researchers in California found that the letters home had no effect on students’ weight.

Dr Hannah Thompson, a University of California-berkeley assistant professor who coauthored the study, said most parents didn’t even remember getting the letters.

“It’s such a tiny-touch behavioural intervention,” she said.

Practical advice needed

Arkansas now measures all public school students in even grades annually, except for 12th graders (equivalent to Form Six or pre-university) because by that stage, Dr Thompson said the students are “beyond the opportunities for schools to have an impact”.

The change also came after many boys in one school wore leg weights under their jeans as a prank, he said. 

Kimberly Collins, 50, remembers being confused by the BMI letters sent to her from the Little Rock School District in Arkansas, stating that all her children were considered overweight and that one daughter was classified as obese.

“It offended me as a mama,” she said. “It made me feel like I wasn’t doing my job.”

She didn’t think her children looked overweight and the family paediatrician had never brought it up as a concern.

 Assist Prof Thompson said that’s the biggest problem with BMI letters: Parents don’t know what to do with the information.

Without support to help change behaviour, she said, the letters don’t do much. >

“You find out your child is asthmatic, and you can get an inhaler, right?” she said.

“You find out that your child is overweight and where do you even go from there? What do you do?”

Dr Kevin Gee, a professor at the University of Californiadavis, who has studied BMI letters, said the mailings miss cultural nuances.

In some communities, for example, people prefer their children to be heavier, associating it with comfort and happiness.

Or some eat foods that they know aren’t very nutritious, but are an important way of expressing love and traditions.

“There’s a lot of rich contextual pieces that we know influences rates of obesity,” he said.

“And so, how do we balance that information?” &

Collins’ daughter, now 15, said that as she’s grown older, she increasingly feels uncomfortable about her weight.

People stare at her and sometimes make comments. (Collins’ mother asked that her daughter’s name not be published because of her age and the sensitive nature of the subject.)

“On my birthday, I went to get my allergy shots and one of the nurses told me, ‘You are getting chubbier’,” she said.

“That didn’t make me feel the best.”

Collins said it pains her to see her soft-spoken daughter cover herself with her arms as if she’s trying to hide.

The teenager has also begun sneaking food and avoids the mirror by refusing to turn on the bathroom light, Collins said.

The girl signed up for tennis, but stopped after other children made fun of her, her mother said. (See From teen to adult: Weight stigma lingers on p8)

Looking back, Collins said, while she wishes she had paid more attention to the BMI letters, she also would have liked practical suggestions on what to do.

She said she had already been following the shortlist of recommended healthy practices, including feeding her children fruits and vegetables, and limiting screen time.

She isn’t sure what else she could have done.

Now everyone has an opinion on her daughter’s weight, Collins said.

One person told her to put a lock on the fridge.

Another t old her to buy vegan snacks.

Her mother bought them a scale.

“It’s a total uphill climb,” Collins said with a sigh. – KFF Health News/tribune News Service

This article was produced as a part of a project for the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship. KFF Health News is a US national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programmes of KFF – the independent source for US health policy research, polling and journalism. 

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Beating US in sci-tech

Science and Technology Clusters Ranking 2023

China is No.1 in technological innovation for the first time 

AS China takes a leading role in technological innovation around the world, its efforts to help Chinese enterprises protect their intellectual property rights overseas have increased, an official from the country’s top IP regulator said.

Shen Changyu, head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, told a news conference on Wednesday that China had 24 “top 100 science and technology clusters” by the end of last year, ranking first in the world for the first time.

The ranking was issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization in its Global Innovation Index 2023.

According to the index, the top 100 science and technology clusters were concentrated in three regions last year – North America, Europe and Asia – and more specifically in two countries – China and the United States.

For the first time last year, China was the economy with the most clusters ranked among the top 100, overtaking the US’ 21 clusters, the same as in 2022, the index showed.

Shen said the achievement was due to the improvement in the quality and quantity of domestic innovation.

He said China authorised 921,000 invention patents last year, up 15.3% year-on-year.

Shen emphasised that IP rights are crucial for an enterprise’s international competitiveness, adding that the administration has taken effective measures to help domestic companies strengthen IP protection when going global.

For instance, the administration has set up a national response and guidance centre for overseas IP disputes with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and has also established stations in countries and regions with intensive trade exchanges to provide professional and efficient IP services for domestic enterprises, he said.

The centre and stations served 1,706 companies last year, helping them recover economic losses of 6.89 billion yuan (RM4.46bil), he said.

“We’ve also continued boosting the collection and supply of overseas IP information, and used online platforms to regularly release IP legal rules and risk warning messages of major nations and regions to help our companies learn about the IP situation in a timely manner,” Shen added.

He said the training of lawyers who can tackle foreign-related IP cases will be increased, and more centres and stations will be built.

China also intensified a crackdown on counterfeits and endeavoured to protect copyrights last year.

Kuang Xu, an official from the State Administration for Market Regulation, said on Wednesday that 44,100 administrative cases related to violations of trademarks and patents were resolved last year.

Among those cases, 1,376 suspected of IP crimes were handed over to judicial authorities, he added.

More than 6.4 million copyrighted works were registered last year, up 42.3% year-on-year, and 4,745 cases of piracy or copyright infringement were resolved, said Tang Zhaozhi, from the copyright management bureau at the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. — China Daily/ANN

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Privacy-centric advertising practices

 

3 Pillars Of Privacy-Centric Marketing: Steps You Need To Take Now

Darren Yuen, CEO of ad agency Initiative Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: Since the beginning of this year, Google has limited third-party cookies for its Chrome web browser users, marking a first step towards eventually abandoning the files that have raised privacy concerns for some time.

The testing period of the deprecation of third-party cookies will continue till the third quarter of this year, by which time it will be ramped up to restrict all users.

The changes are causing a seismic shift in the way digital marketers operate across the brands they work with.

Darren Yuen, CEO of ad agency Initiative Malaysia, shared his views with StarBiz on how limiting third-party cookies would affect the way agencies and marketers work moving forward.

StarBiz: What are cookies and how have they been used in digital advertising?

Yuen: Cookies are small files which are used to target advertising by tracking web navigation and have recently been subject to greater regulation globally.

These text files gather data about users’ browsing activity, identify computers that are connected to a computer network and specifically are used to identify and track specific users.

First-party cookies collect information activities on a particular site to improve the user experience. These are website-specific and once you click off the site, first-party cookies stop tracking you.

Third-party cookies on the other hand, work by embedding a persistent file on individual computers, working across the Internet to collect information about overall browsing habits.

Unlike first-party cookies, third-party cookies are generated externally by digital advertising agencies.

When users visit a site, the cookies track the site activity and save data about the browsing session, such as the sites visited and how much time is spent on certain pages, etc.

This data is sent back to the third party who created the cookie and is used to build out individual and group audience profiles.

Why should cookies be restricted?

Privacy concerns around the world have been the main push behind the cookie’s demise.

Previously, users had no control over when companies tracked them with cookies, but key regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation that mandates that websites must ask for consent before using cookies on users in the European Union and the European Economic Area have set a precedent worldwide, improving the quality of data collected.

How will the loss of third-party cookies impact the advertising industry and its implications for advertisers?

Historically, most advertisers have relied on third-party data to inform ad campaigns. The loss of these will signify a loss of detailed targeting capabilities and decreased capabilities to measure ad performance accurately.

While the death of the cookie will dramatically change the digital marketing landscape for good, new technologies are arising to replace third-party cookies or improve first-party cookies.

As such, there will now be an increased reliance on first-party data, contextual targeting (a technique where ads are placed based on the content of a particular web page) and third party alternatives to the cookie like The Trade Desk UID or Universal ID – a holistic targeting and measurement system that’s more privacy-conscious.

At this point, are advertisers in Malaysia prepared?

Some brands have begun investing in tech infrastructure to start collecting their own first party cookies and other data sources.

Brands are also starting to invest in alternative solutions like contextual targeting or implementing ways to map customer relationship management data directly to platforms for improved measurement.

However, there is a high cost of entry to improve these ad tech capabilities and advertisers are generally wary of newer capabilities.

Advertisers also have concerns around these changes.

For instance, there are uncertainties and a lack of understanding around new alternative solutions such as the increased use of UIDs, which is a privacy-focused, unencrypted identifier created from a user’s email address or phone number.

There are also concerns around the potential decrease in measuring campaign effectiveness and how brands can maintain personalised digital experiences without detailed interest and behaviour targeting.

What are some key steps to get advertisers prepared?

The most important thing is for advertisers to re-examine their existing digital marketing strategy to see ways in which reliance on third-party cookies can be eliminated.

For instance, advertisers need to allocate resources to collect and manage first-party data effectively.

On an immediate basis, it will be useful to also start testing alternative targeting approaches across current campaigns by partnering with ad tech firms to create inventive solutions based on the UIDs.

Initiative Malaysia has also developed a unique assessment approach for the brands we work with, through an Emerging Tech Assessment.

This helps assess a brand’s digital activity’s readiness to these changes by categorising it into high, medium and low-risk buckets.

From here, we help plot a roadmap over the coming months to mitigate any potential risk areas and look at technologies available that could supersede existing performance.

How will advertisers be impacted if they do not prepare themselves for this development?

It is imperative that brands make swift preparation for these changes as there will be serious repercussions in the coming year, with wastage of advertising budgets on less effective campaigns or possibly delivering ads that are irrelevant.Brands will also face difficulties in reaching and engaging with their high value target audiences and in the long run, lose competitiveness in the digital space. This shift towards more privacy-centric advertising practices is here to stay and brands need to hasten efforts to gain an edge over their competition.

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Overcapacity’ an excuse to target ‘Made-in-China’

 

The overarching US strategy of exaggerating the issue of China’s overcapacity … is aimed at checking China’s industrial development by resorting to a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. — China Daily

RECENTLY, some US and EU officials have said China’s overcapacity distorts global pricing and production patterns. Concur-rently, the Joe Biden administration is considering imposing high tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, potentially opening a new front in the ongoing trade conflicts in order to contain Beijing’s “Made in China” drive.

Overcapacity is an economic term that signifies a situation in which there is too much production capacity relative to current demand levels, and hence it should not be overly “pan-securitised”.

Capacity utilisation rates are crucial indicators of whether capacity is adequately leveraged, with a very high rate generally indicating a shortage and a low rate suggesting excess capacity or an irrational capacity structure.

According to the latest data from Trading Economics, the United States has a capacity utilisation rate of 78.3% while China’s stands at 75.9%.

Developed countries including the United States and European nations consider any rate between 79% and 83% an indicator of supply and demand. China’s rate is not significantly lower than the healthy range.

Moreover, China has eliminated outdated steel production capacity to a large extent, having reduced about 300 million tonnes of steel and one billion tonnes of coal capacities, including entirely eliminating 140 million tonnes of substandard steel capacity, over the past decade.

Western pressure on China’s industries and trade has intensified in recent years, with many Western countries restricting the export of semiconductors to China and curbing the import of Chinese-made new energy vehicles, while taking “reshoring” or “near-shoring” measures, further exacerbating global overcapacity and straining the global economic governance system.

This is not the first time the West is using “overcapacity” as a pretext to suppress China’s manufacturing sector. In 2012, the European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese photovoltaic products, initially planning to impose a 47.6% tariff on them. But in July 2013, China and the European Union “amicably” settled the photovoltaic trade dispute.

Unlike previous occasions, however, this round of scrutiny by the West is focused on China’s advanced manufacturing, particularly in clean energy sectors such as electric vehicles (EVs), photovoltaic panels and lithium batteries – areas in which there is intense Sino-US competition and China enjoys competitive advantages.

In recent years, spurred by the “New Washington Consensus”, the Joe Biden administration has increasingly used administrative and other non-market forces to ensure it has the upper hand in its competition with China in strategic future industries.

Government intervention

Also, the United States has been strengthening the industrial policy through government intervention, which, in essence, is strategic protectionism.

As many as 49 industries including automobile, aerospace, defence, electrical equipment, information and communications technology, and renewable energy in the United States get huge government subsidies.

Also, while strengthening itself, the United States has also increased efforts to weaken others. In recent years, under the guise of combating climate change and promoting low-carbon development, the United States has enacted the Inflation Reduction Act, which imposes discriminatory subsidy policies on products from World Trade Organisation (WTO) member states, specifically EVs from China.

These measures distort fair competition and will disrupt the global supply chains, as well as violate WTO rules of national treatment and most-favoured-nation status.

With the US presidential election still seven months away, the “overcapacity” issue is likely to be exploited by US politicians on the campaign trail, and the United States could intensify its rhetoric on China’s overcapacity, possibly imposing tariffs on Chinese exports including EVs, power batteries and photovoltaic panels.

It could also ramp up anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigations, and impose green or labour standards barriers to limit Chinese exports. Alternatively, it may continue to forge alliances based on different issues to contain China.

The overarching US strategy of exaggerating the issue of China’s overcapacity is not aimed at striking a balance between global supply and demand; instead, it is aimed at checking China’s industrial development by resorting to a beggar-thy-neighbour policy.

The narrative of overcapacity is crafted by the United States to curb China’s industrial upgrading, safeguard certain Western countries’ vested interests in the global industry and supply chains, promote the reshoring of supply chains to the United States, bolster the US’ manufacturing competitiveness, contain China’s technological progress and prevent it from achieving breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing and strategic industries. — China Daily/ANN

Zhang Monan is deputy director of the Institute of American and European Studies at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges. The views expressed are the writer’s own.

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Faced with the common challenge of climate change, promoting energy transition should uphold an open and cooperative attitude, rather than getting bogged down in futile trade disputes and blame games, otherwise it will only hinder the pace of global energy transition.

Fund-of-Funds to fuel local firms

Fund RM1BIL set aside to invest in innovative highi-growth start-ups, says PM 

Fund of Funds (FOF) Explained: How It Works, Pro & Cons, Example

KUALA LUMPUR: A sum of RM1bil for the “National Fund-of-Funds” will be set up to invest in innovative high-growth Malaysian companies, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“I am pleased to share that Khazanah Nasional Bhd will launch a ‘National Fund-of-Funds’ with an initial RM1bil allocation,” the Prime Minister said when delivering his keynote address at the launch of the inaugural KL20 Summit here yesterday.

He said the setting up of the fund represented the government’s continued commitment to assisting local companies such as those run by bumiputra entrepreneurs, as well as startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in line with Budget 2024 allocations.

ALSO READ: Policy advisory panel to focus on growth and economy

He said the government acknowledged the growing importance of startups in driving technological advancements in the country.

As such, he said the KL20 Summit provided an ideal launchpad for innovative ideas.

“KL20 does not simply represent a single-event summit but marks a clear break from the past, which is a comprehensive effort to catalyse the technology ecosystem,” he said

He added that KL20 would fit strategically into the central governing economic philosophy of the Madani Economic Framework, which is underscored by the principle that economic growth and compatible distribution are in harmony with market forces.

ALSO READ: Elevating the country to be a leading startup destination

“The government is also aiming to centralise investment agencies such as Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd (Mavcap) and Penjana Kapital under Khazanah Nasional,” he said.

Anwar also announced the signing of agreements involving 25 entities from various sectors of the startup ecosystem to help create cutting-edge technology ventures in Malaysia.

Among them was the Asean Investment Initiative between Khazanah Nasional, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) and Blue Chip Venture Capital that will invest RM3bil in the South-East Asian and Malaysian ecosystems.

ALSO READ: KL20 Summit 2024 to attract high-quality investments - PM

He also said that 12 international venture capital firms would be setting up offices in Kuala Lumpur, which will help Malaysian startups be discovered and nurtured to be globally successful.

On semiconductors, he said the nation’s substantial hold on the backend had made it conducive to pursue high-value front-end work, primarily in the integrated circuit (IC) design category.

“I am pleased to announce the largest IC Design Park in South-East Asia, which will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm.

“This is done with the backing of the Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec), with the Selangor state government, and this is proof that momentum is already being built on the ground,” he said.

ALSO READ: Making the Malaysian startup pitch

He added that the country was positioning itself as one of the leaders in semiconductors, clean energy, agritech and Islamic fintech.

To make Malaysia a true gateway to major economies, Anwar said a city-to-city connection between Kuala Lumpur and Hangzhou would be established so that capital, talent and market access would no longer be a barrier.

Earlier in his speech, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the goal of the KL20 Action Plan was to bring the top 20 startups in the world into the country.

This, he said, would be done through the immediate introduction of several measures.

He said the move was aimed at accelerating the critical areas of a startup ecosystem here.

“The ambition is for Malaysia to be the choice destination for early-stage and growth capital and to be the centre for world-class entrepreneurs and skilled talent,” said Rafizi.

He added that it was also the goal for the nation to be the home for leading startups in the world.

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