23/01/2026

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | JAN 23, 2026

FOLLOW

ON TWITTER Malaysian Paper

14

@thesundaily

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) has appointed Bryan Foong Chee Yeong as CEO of airline business and Low Wen Long as group chief strategy officer, effective Feb 1. They will report directly to MAG president and group CEO-designate Captain Nasaruddin A. Bakar. Their appointments are to strengthen MAG’s leadership at a pivotal stage as the group advances its Long-Term Business Plan 3.0, driving growth in its core businesses and ensuring financial stability. Foong will be responsible for steering the strategic direction and performance of MAG’s global and segmented airlines portfolio, including Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and Amal while Low will lead the formulation and execution of the group’s enterprise-wide strategy across its key business portfolios to support sustainable growth and value creation. Nasaruddin said, “As MAG enters PETALING JAYA: The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) yesterday decided to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 2.75%. The MPC considers the monetary policy stance, with the OPR at the current level, to be appropriate and supportive of the economy amid price stability. In a statement, BNM said it will continue to monitor ongoing developments and assess the balance of risks surrounding the outlook for domestic growth and inflation. For the Malaysian economy, it said, the growth for 2025 is expected to be around the upper end of the forecast range. “This growth momentum is expected to continue in 2026, supported by resilient domestic demand. Employment, wage growth and income-related policy measures will remain supportive of household spending. Investment activity will be driven by the progress of multi-year projects in both the private and public sectors, implementation of new smaller scale public projects, continued high realisation of approved invest

Bank Negara maintains benchmark rate at 2.75%

and stronger fiscal support. For 2026, while the impact of tariffs could weigh on global growth, the outlook remains resilient, sup ported by sustained domestic demand, moderating inflation, robust tech investments, and supp ortive fiscal and monetary policies. Downside risks remain, arising from potentially higher tariffs, further escalation in geopolitical tensions and heightened volatility in global financial markets. Additionally, there are continued concerns over the elevated valua tions in financial markets. Upside potential includes stronger tech spending, a milder tariff impact on economic activity and pro-growth policies in major economies.

averaged 1.4% and 2%, res-pectively, in 2025. For 2026, BNM said, headline inflation is expected to remain moderate amid the continued easing in global cost conditions. Global commodity prices are expected to remain modest, contributing to contained domestic cost conditions. Meanwhile, core inflation in 2026 is expected to remain stable and close to its long-term average, reflecting continued expansion in economic activity and the absence of excessive demand pressures. BNM said global growth for 2025 turned out higher than expected, mainly reflecting lower-than-anti cipated tariffs, higher artificial intelligence AI-led tech spending and creating enduring value for our customers, employees and stake holders.” As Nasaruddin assumes his full role as MAG president and group CEO on Feb 1, he will continue to be supported by a seasoned executive team, including Mohd Nadziruddin Mohd Basri, CEO of aviation services, and Philip See, CEO of loyalty and travel services. This core leadership – ensuring coordinated expertise across MAG’s three core business areas including airline business – is bolstered by the recent appointments of Amran Mohd Tomin as group chief people officer and Ong Min Hui as group chief transformation and customer experience officer. With this strengthened leadership team in place, MAG is well-posi tioned to execute its strategic milestones and reinforce its commit ment to delivering exceptional value to its stakeholders and customers worldwide, it said. The site now hosts the full Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM platform, including Zscaler Internet AccessTM and Zscaler Private AccessTM, to provide fast, secure access to internet, SaaS, AI and private applications without placing users on the network. Built to Zscaler’s latest global standards, it meets the highest resilience requirements with diverse network paths, redundant power and cooling, and a high-availability design to maximise uptime and business continuity. As part of Zscaler’s commitment to sustainability, the new facility joins Zscaler’s global footprint of 160-plus data centres, all powered by re newable energy.

o ‘Monetary policy supportive of economy, upside potential to growth could come from better global outlook, stronger demand for E&E goods and more robust tourism activities’

BNM said, adding that downside risks remain from slower global trade and lower than-expected com modity production. Meanwhile, upside potential to growth could arise from a better global growth outlook, stronger demand for E&E goods, and more robust tourism activity. Headline and core inflation

ments, as well as the ongoing implementation of national master plans,” said the central bank. It said the external sector will benefit from continued strength in electrical and electronic exports and higher tourist spending. The growth outlook remains subject to uncertainties, in particular surrounding global developments,

Malaysia Aviation Group strengthens executive leadership as it enters next stage of transformation

HSS Integrated appointed as consultant for Perak data centre project

KUALA LUMPUR: HSS Engi neers Bhd’s (HEB) associate company, HSS Integrated Sdn Bhd (HSSI) has been appointed as project management con sultant for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of a data centre in Bagan Datuk, Perak. The company said in a Bursa Malaysia filing that HSSI accepted a letter of appointment from Silver Streams Technofarm Sdn Bhd. “The services to be provided by HSSI shall include, without limi tation, overall project manage ment, design management, prog ramme and schedule manage ment, cost and contract admi nistration, change management, construction and site manage ment, quality assurance and quality control, and full con struction supervision. “Pursuant to the exclusive teaming arrangement between HSSI and HSS Engineering Sdn Bhd (HSSE) – a wholly owned subsidiary of HEB – HSSI and HSSE will collaborate exclusively to execute and complete the ser vices,” it said. The company said the services, which have an estimated value of RM22 million, are expected to contribute positively to the revenue, earnings and net assets of the HEB group for the financial years ending Dec 31, 2026 to Dec 31, 2027. “The services will not have any impact on the share capital and/or shareholding structure of HEB. The services are expected to be funded via internally generated funds and/or external borrow ings,” it added. It said the commencement date is December 2025, while the estimated completion date is June 2027. – Bernama

Bryan Foong

Low Wen Long

group that serves as a key enabler of Malaysia’s long-term develop ment. I have full confidence in the leadership team to execute our strategic priorities with discipline, delivering consistent performance

the next stage of its transformation, marking a shift from stabilisation to scaled and disciplined growth, we are guided by a clear responsibility to build a financially sustainable and globally competitive aviation

Zscaler expands in Malaysia with data centre in KL PETALING JAYA: US-based Zscaler Inc, a cloud cybersecurity security specialist, launched a data centre in Kuala Lumpur to deliver greater capacity, performance and resiliency for customers in Malaysia. data residency preferences and high availability for public and private sectors.

As part of Zscaler’s continued investment in Southeast Asia, the new facility is available to all customers in Malaysia and the broader region – complementing the existing Zscaler infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur, with added capabilities and upgraded resilience aligned to modern artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud re quirements. “We see public and private sector organisations in Malaysia continuing to modernise applications and infrastructure, ever embracing cloud and AI. With this accelerating shift, the threat landscape and attack surface

Malaysia to secure, simplify, and transform their operations with local performance, scale, and resilience across all major clouds. As Malaysian organisations accelerate digitisation, hybrid work and Enterprise AI, cyber threats are growing in volume and sophis tication, Zscaler’s new Kuala Lumpur data centre delivers lower latency and a better digital experience while enforcing granular, identity-based zero trust security to reduce risk and limit attack blast radius, and supports

advances in both volume and sophistication. That makes adopting a zero trust approach more critical than ever, especially as more organisations move beyond legacy private networks, security and governance in a cloud-enabled, connected, mobile first world,” Zscaler Greater Asia vice president and managing director Sanjay Yadave said, adding that by expanding their footprint in Kuala Lumpur, they are strengthening their ability to partner with public and private sector customers across