An Overview of Activities

It is my pleasure to present to the Annual General Meeting, the Persatuan Ekonomi Malaysia (PEM) Annual Report for the year ended 31 December, 2011.

PEM had organised again the core activities for the year 2011. On Thursday, 24 March, 2011, PEM organised the Bank Negara Malaysia Governor’s Address at Dewan Perdana, Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort, Jalan Bukit Kiara, Off Jalan Damansara, 60000 Kuala Lumpur. The Keynote Address was delivered by Dr Sukhdave Singh, the Assistant Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia. This year the response to the event was overwhelming, and was attended by about 150 leading bankers and corporate leaders of the industry, and friends of PEM. PEM would also like to record a word of thanks to Bank Negara Malaysia who has kindly given complimentary copies of the 2010 BNM Annual Reports to PEM.

The second core event was the Seminar on the “Where is the world economy heading? Economic Outlook Asia” at Lecture Theatre 3 (DK3), Faculty of Economics and Administration (FEP), University of Malaya, on Monday, 25 July, 2011. This even was successfully conducted by PEM and Faculty of Economics and Administration (FEA) with the collaboration of Allianz. The Speaker from Allianz was Prof Michael Heise, Chief Economist Allianz SE. It was chaired by YBhg Dato’ Dr R Thillainathan, Professor Adjunct, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. This event has focused on the current global economic situation, the economic outlook for Asia and Malaysia as well as financial market outlook.

The third core event was the 2012 Post-Budget Dialogue held at Auditorium Dewan Berjaya, Bukit Kiara Equestrian Resort, Jalan Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, on Monday, 10 October 2011. As in previous years, the Post-Budget Panel picked up issues, strategy and approach tabled by the Minister of Finance (MOF). This year, the Keynote Address was delivered by YBhg. Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz bin Wan Abdullah, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance. Six panelists, chaired by Prof Dato’ Norma Mansor, Vice President of PEM, joined the discussion. Those six panelists for this event are Datuk Mohd Nasir Ali, Group Executive Diector, Utusan Group, Dr.Marie-Aimee Tourres, Senior Lecturer Fellow, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, and Dr.Chua Hak Bin, Director, Global Research, Bank of America. Three panelists from Ministry of Finance are Dato’ Siti Halimah Ismail, Undersecretary, Tax Analysis Division, MOF, Tuan Haji Rahim Abu Bakar, Director, Budget Division, MOF and Dr.Sundram Annamalai, Undersecretary, Economic and International Division, MOF.

Persatuan Ekonomi Malaysia (PEM) hosted the 36th Annual Conference of the Federation of the ASEAN Economic Association (FAEA), on 24th-25th November at CITITEL Hotel (Mid Valley), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Theme was “ASEAN After the Global Crisis: Management and Change”. Keynote Address was delivered by YB Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Minister to the Prime Minster’s Department, who officiated the event too. PEM sponsored two (2) official delegates and two(2) paper presenter from each ASEAN countries for this 36th FAEA Conference. There were four (4) parallel sessions, with different themes for each session. The theme for session 1 was “After the Global Financial Crisis: ASEAN in a changing world, where eight (8) papers were presented in this session. This session was chaired by Prof. Dr. Tan Eu Chye, the Dean of Faculty Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. Plenary speakers of this session were Dr. Cheong Kee Cheok, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya and Dr. Thilainathan Ramasamy, Former President, Malaysian Economic Association. The theme for session 2 was “Financial Sector Change”, where eleven (11) papers were presented. This session was chaired by Prof. Dr. Didik J. Rachbini, Indonesian Economist Association (ISEI). The two plenary speakers were Dr. Jayant Menon, Lead Economist, Trade and Regional Cooperation, Asian Development Bank as well as Dr. Michael Lim Mah Hui, Senior Fellow with the Asian Public Intellectuals Program of the Nippon Foundation. The theme for Session 3 & 4 was “Institutional, Political and Social Changes”, and four (4) papers were presented. This session was chaired by Dr. Celia M Reyes, President, Phillipine Economic Society (PES). The plenary speaker was Prof. Dr. Rajah Rasiah, First Chairholder of the Khazanah Nasioanal Chair on Regulatory Studies at the University of Malaya, Centre of Regulatory Studies, UMCoRs while the discussant was Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Kamal Mat Salih, Chairman, KLEC Ventures Sdn. Bhd. Last but not least, theme of Session 5 was “Food Security: Reshaping the Development Agenda in ASEAN”. Plenary speakers for this session are Dr. Larry Wong, Program Director, Technology, Innovation, Environment and Sustainability (TIES), at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia and by Prof. Dr. Fatimah Mohd. Arshad, Director, Institute of Agriculture and Food Policy Studies, University Putra Malaysia. About forty (40) over paper presenter took part in this conference. There is positive response and support from all the paper presenters, official delegates, and participants.

The final core event was the Economic Migration and Brain Drain in the Asia-Pacific at Lecture Theatre 3 (DK3), Faculty of Economics and Administration University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 14 December 2011. The event was chaired by Prof. Dr.Tan Eu Chye, Dean, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya and Dr.Cheong Cheok Kee, Chairman of the Editorial Board, Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies. While the speakers are Dr.Graemo Hugo, ARC Australian Professorial Fellow and Professor of Geography, University of Adelaide, Johan Mahmood Merican, CEO Talent Corporation Malaysia, Sin Yee Koh, PhD candidate, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Ho Yi Jian, Project Coordinator, International Institute of Strategic Studies-Asia, Adam D Tyson, Lecturer of Southeast Asian Politics, University of Leeds, Daasaratan Jeram and Vanitha Sivapragasam, recent graduates, University Utara Malaysia. This event was funded by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung-Malaysia and Talent Corporation Malaysia.