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, 2014.

PEM’s first major activity for the year was the Bank Negara Malaysia Governor’s Address at Securities Commission Bukit Kiara , Kuala Lumpur, held on 20 March 2014. The Keynote Address was delivered by Dr. Sukhdave Singh, Assistant Governor , Bank Negara Malaysia. The panelists for this event were Prof. Datuk Dr. Noor Azlan Ghazali Vice Chancellor of UKM , Mr. Alan Tan the Chief Economist of Affin Investment Bank and Mr. Ong Sin Beng Regional Economist , JP Morgan of Singapore.

This year the response to the event was overwhelming attended by about 200 leading bankers and corporate leaders of the industry and friends of PEM, including representatives of foreign missions in Kuala Lumpur.

Following the Bank Negara Malaysia Governor’s Address we had our 51st Annual General meeting on the same day.

The second core event was the 2015 Post-Budget Dialogue also at Securities Commission Bukit Kiara , Kuala Lumpur held on 13th October 2014 and was attended by more than 150 participants from various organisations.

Our invited keynote speaker was YBhg. Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah the Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance. The panelists were Dr. Frederico Gil Sander of East Asia & Pacific, Poverty Reduction & Economic Management of the World Bank, En. Nurhisham Hussein Chief Economist from Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Dr . Veerinderjeet Singh of Taxand (M) Sdn Bhd.

Representatives from Ministry of Finance were YBhg. Dato’ Siti Halimah Ismail the Under Secretary Tax Analysis Division and YBhg. Dato’ Dr. Ismail Hj Bakar the National Director of Budget , Ministry of Finance. This event which had the panelists to explain the theme “Budget Strategically Explained” was aimed to achieve how the government formulated the 2015 budget for the nation.

The third core event was the Tribute to Remembering Dato’ Dr. Mahani Zainal Abidin at Sime Darby Convention Centre on 9th May 2014. This event was to honour the memory of the late Dato’ Dr. Mahani Zainal Abidin as well as to offer our condolences to the family on their great loss. She had contributed to the Malaysian Economy Association since 1988 – 1990 as the Committee Member , 1990 – 1992 as Publications Secretary , 1992 – 1996 as Advisor and 1996 – 2008 as Deputy President. She worked long and hard to stimulate interest in economics, disseminate knowledge on the discipline and raise funds to sustain the Association.

Our final event was initiated by Datuk Dr. R Thilainathan our Yayasan MEA Board of Trustee who invited Datuk Ramesh Chander the first Malaysian Chief Statistician of Malaysia from the year 1964 to 1977 and later seconded to the World Bank as the Bank’s Senior Statistical Adviser in that capacity until 1996, to deliver a talk entitled “Understanding China’s Statistics” held at Securities Commission Bukit Kiara , Kuala Lumpur on the 25th September 2014 . This interesting talk attracted a large crowd from various companies. Many of his old friends also attended.

The Exco wishes to thank PEM members and friends for their continuing support and assistance.

A list of activities organised by the Persatuan is as listed in Annex I.

Activity of Yayasan MEA is given in Annex II.

Membership particulars of the Persatuan is in Annex III.

Acknowledgements
The Persatuan wishes to express its gratitude and appreciation to the following:

• The Dean, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, for co-organising the core activities of the Persatuan.
• The staff of the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, for their cooperation and support.
• All representatives of the press and media for providing publicity on the activities of the Association.
• MJES Editorial Board and sub-committee members
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• International Monetary Fund
• The Association of Banks in Malaysia
• Securities Commission Malaysia
• Ministry of Finance
• Prof. Dr. Saadiah Mohammad, Hon. Secretary of PEM (01 October 2013 – 01 March 2015)

The Persatuan also wishes to take this opportunity to congratulate our Hon. Secretary Prof. Dr. Saadiah Mohamad for being offered a fellowship at the Centre for Islamic Studies at Oxford University. We wish her all the best in her attachment to Oxford University.

We thank her for her service from 1st October 2013 till 1st March 2015 as our Hon. Secretary , in which she served with full commitment.

The Persatuan also wishes to welcome our new Exco members as follows :-

• Prof. Dr. Noor Azina Ismail
• Dr. Jorah Ramlan
• En. Shahrin Saaid Shahafuddin
• Dr. Tay Jon Jon
• Mr. David Sim Huay Chuang
• Mr. Lee Heng Guie.

Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd. Sheriff Mohd. Kassim
President