Carimin Petroleum Bhd, an Oil and gas (O&G) services provider, is scheduled to be listed in Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on 10th November 2014.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) consists of 60.7 million new ordinary shares and offer for sale of 5.89 million shares at an IPO price of RM1.10 per share at RM0.50 par value. 51.90 million will be for private placement & selected investors, 11.69 million shares to the Malaysian public and 3 million shares for eligible directors & employees.

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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Finance Minister, unveiled 2015 budgets in the Parliaments on Friday, 10th October 2014. The theme for 2015 Budget “Accelerating Growth, Ensuring Fiscal Sustainability and Prospering the Rakyat.”

In 2015, economic growth is expected to remain strong between 5% and 6% while the fiscal deficit is projected to further decline to 3% of GDP.

The 2015 budget is formulated with focus on the people’s economy and outlines seven main strategies:

First Strategy: Strengthening Economic Growth;

Second Strategy: Enhancing Fiscal Governance;

Third Strategy: Developing Human Capital and Entrepreneurship;

Fourth Strategy: Advancing Bumiputera Agenda;

Fifth Strategy: Upholding Role of Women;

Sixth Strategy: Developing National Youth Transformation Programme; and

Seventh Strategy: Prioritising Well-Being of the Rakyat.

The following are 2014 Budget highlights for Personal Finance and Investment.

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From Aug 11 to Aug 25, the government launched a Budget 2015 campaign where they invite Malaysians to offer ideas through #Bajet2015 microsite. Many people participated in the campaign regardless of age.

Many website and research said that the Malaysia Budget 2015 will continue to be friendly to businesses and investors as well as the people. Next year 1 April will be the implementation of GST (Goods & Services Tax) and it is expected that there will be a rise in cost of living to the people and also cost of doing business of Malaysian businesses. It is expected that with the implementation of GST, the house affordability among low income earner and first time home buyer will decline. The overall consumer spending will likely come under pressure and a decline in spending.

In general websites, the researcher believes that under Budget 2015, the government strives to lower the debt level of the country and at the same time strive a balance to also growing the people’s welfare and private sector.

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World Economic Forum (WEF) which is based in Geneva, Switzerland recently release “The Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015”. The ranking is based on 12 pillars and 144 criterias to measure the competitiveness for each countries.

The 12 pillars are Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic environment, Health and primary education, Higher education and training, Goods market efficiency, Labor market efficiency, Financial market development, Technological readiness, Market size, Business sophistication & Innovation.

In the report, Malaysia ranked the 20th most competitive nation among 148 countries up 4 spot from 24th out of 144 countries in 2013-2014 overtaking advanced economies country such as Australia and France. Malaysia remained the second most competitive among Asean and has improved to sixth position among 28 Asia-Pacific countries. Malaysia’s biggest improvement was in the institutions pillar.

The table below is top 25 of the ranking.

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