KUALA LUMPUR (Xinhua) – Malaysia reported 21,483 new COVID-19 infections, as of midnight on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 4,032,435, according to the Health Ministry.
There are 394 new imported cases, with 21,089 being local transmissions, data released on the ministry’s website showed.
A further 73 deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 34,535.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s government lifted a warning of potential blackouts for the Tokyo region yesterday as weather and conservation efforts improved, but the supply outlook still appears fragile with several coal-fired plants offline.
The energy shortfall came as people used more power to keep warm on an unusually cold, snowy day on Tuesday and followed an earthquake last week that caused several coal-fired plants to temporarily stop generating electricity.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
WUZHOU, CHINA (AP) – Mud-stained wallets. Bank cards. Official identity cards. Poignant reminders of 132 lives presumed lost were lined up by rescue workers scouring a remote Chinese mountainside on Tuesday for the wreckage of a China Eastern flight that one day earlier inexplicably fell from the sky and burst into a huge fireball.
No survivors have been found among the 123 passengers and nine crew members. Video clips posted by China’s state media show small pieces of the Boeing 737-800 plane scattered over a wide forested area, some in green fields, others in burnt-out patches with raw earth exposed after fires burned in the trees. Each piece of debris has a number next to it, the larger ones marked off by police tape.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
WARSAW, POLAND (AP) – Poland has identified 45 Russian intelligence officers using diplomatic status as cover to stay in the country and authorities are seeking to expel them, officials said yesterday.
Poland’s Internal Security Agency said it’s asking the Foreign Ministry to urgently remove the Russians, who were described as a danger to Poland’s security, from the country.
“These are people who have and operate using their diplomatic status, but in reality conduct intelligence activities against Poland,” said the state security spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
KAMPALA, UGANDA (AP) – Widespread hunger across East Africa could become “a catastrophe” without an injection of funds to the region’s most vulnerable communities, the international aid group Oxfam warned on Tuesday.
An estimated 13 million people are facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa as a result of persistent drought conditions, according to the United Nations (UN).
Only three per cent of the needed USD6 billion has been raised for food assistance amid “competing priorities,” as the world’s attention has focussed on the humanitarian crisis in the war in Ukraine, Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
LIMA (AFP) – Palaeontologists last Thursday unveiled the fossilised remains of an ancient whale that inhabited the seas 36 million years ago, found last year in a Peruvian desert.
“We have presented the new Peruvian basilosaurus, it is the complete skull of an archaic whale that lived 36 million years ago,” palaeontologist Mario Urbina, head of the team that discovered the skeleton, told AFP.
Urbina said the basilosaurus was found at the end of 2021 in the Ocucaje Desert in the Ica department, about 350 kilometres south of Lima. The desolate landscape was a shallow sea millions of years ago, and its dunes have yielded large numbers of striking primitive sea mammal remains.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam yesterday sent a message of congratulations to Pakistani President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan, as well as the Government and the people of Pakistan on the occasion of Pakistan Day.
Fadley Faisal
A robust economic ecosystem lies in the hands of the public even during COVID-19 restrictions, said Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah in response to a media query on the government’s plans for economic recovery.
The minister urged the public to take the opportunity to fill in the abundant vacancies available in businesses.
He reiterated that sooner or later, the vacancies will have to be filled and if the locals are not willing to take up the jobs, they will eventually have to be offered to foreign workers.
On explaining the vicious cycle of economic turmoil in the absence of ample manpower, Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew said, “Businesses need to run. If there is a shortage of manpower, the businesses will have to close eventually.”
The minister said the government and the COVID-19 Task Force are relentlessly monitoring the situation to improve economic activities. Nonetheless, the implications are contributed by the public, where an example of an improving economic activity would be having more individuals getting booster shots so they can go out and visit shops.
Azlan Othman
Brunei Darussalam will sight the new moon of Ramadhan for 1443 Hijrah next Friday to determine the first day of fasting, according to the Syariah Court of Appeal yesterday.
The moon sighting will be conducted by Syariah Court judges and Syariah Court officials as well as officials from the Survey Department at the Pantai Jerudong Specialist Centre, Bukit Agok in Jerudong and Tanjung Batu in Pekan Muara in Brunei-Muara District; Bukit Ambog in Tutong District; and Bukit Lumut in Belait District.
Syariah Court of Appeal officials seek cooperation from the public not to be near the area.
Announcement for the first day of Ramadhan will be broadcast on Radio Television Brunei as soon as the moon sighting result is available.
Brunei Darussalam was ranked 12th in the Refinitiv Islamic Finance Development Report 2021: Advancing Economies, in terms of overall development in the Islamic finance industry out of 135 countries being assessed.
The report revealed that based on 2020 data, Brunei Darussalam achieved 34 points in the Islamic Finance Indicator (IFDI), while the global average indicator value rose to 11.0 for 2021 from 10.8 for 2020.
The IFDI 2021 indicator score looks at key metrics that shaped the pandemic year of 2020.
The report indicated that the global Islamic finance industry has maintained a double-digit growth of 14 per cent year-on-year, amounting to USD3.374 trillion despite challenges faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The report further projects that the size of of the Islamic finance industry to rise in USD4.94 trillion in 2025, with an average growth of eight per cent in the next five years. Islamic banking continues to dominate the Islamic finance asset distribution with 70 per cent share in 2020, followed by Sukuk at 19 per cent; Islamic funds at five per cent; other Islamic financial institutions (OIFI) at five per cent; and Takaful at two per cent.
The IFDI provides rankings and profiles for different Islamic finance markets around the world, with instrumental factors in five broad areas of development as the main indicators. These include quantitative development (Islamic banking, Takaful, OIFI, Sukuk and Islamic funds); knowledge (education and research), governance (regulations, Syariah governance and corporate governance); corporate social responsibility (CSR activities and CSR funds); and awareness (seminars, news and conferences).
According to the report, Malaysia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia came as the top three Islamic finance markets in overall development, while Maldives jumped to 10th place from 12th place previously, with significant improvement in CSR.
In 2020, the Sultanate attained the top place in regulations, a sub-indicator of governance.
The report has also acknowledged Brunei with notable improvement in Islamic finance knowledge, ranking fifth in research.
In terms of assets growth, the Sultanate attained eighth place in OIFI assets with a value of USD2 billion, and top 10 in Takaful assets with a value of USD0.4 billion in 2020.
The report has also recognised the Sultanate as one of the countries with continued sizeable Sukuk issuances in the Southeast Asian region along with Malaysia and Indonesia. As a region, Southeast Asia holds the highest value of Sukuk assets at USD335 billion.
The opportunities that Islamic FinTech is creating in the Sultanate are also noted as one of the emerging Islamic finance markets. This includes the participation of the first Syariah-compliant peer-t-peer (P2P) crowdfunding platform in the FinTech Regulatory Sandbox and the publication of The State iof FinTech in Brunei Darussalam Whitepaper, which among others, highlights potential areas of growth for Islamic Fintech in Brunei Darussalam.
