Kanger International bags RM478m contract to build two blocks of apartments in Genting Highlands
Wong Ee Lin
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theedgemarkets.com

March 02, 2021 21:39 pm +08
Kanger International bags RM478m contract to build two blocks of apartments in Genting Highlands
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 2): ACE Market-listed Kanger International Bhd's wholly owned unit has bagged a contract to build two blocks of serviced apartments totalling RM478 million in Genting Highlands.

Its subsidiary Kanger Ventures Sdn Bhd, which has entered into a collaboration agreement with Vegetta Champion Sdn Bhd, will be responsible for the entire project management, financial and entire administration of this development.

Meanwhile, Vegetta Champion has been appointed the main contractor for foundation and main building works of the development, according to a statement today.

The project is expected to commence in June 2021 and will take approximately 48 months to be completed.

On top of this project, Kanger previously bagged multiple construction projects with a total contract value of RM495.9 million on Jan 15, which brought its total construction order book to RM973.9 million for the group's construction division.

"We are pleased to work with Vegetta Champion and clinch yet another construction contract in Malaysia. The order book will boost our construction division and enhance our revenue and earnings over the next few years," said Kanger's executive director Steven Kuah Choon Ching.

"Looking ahead, we continue to look for business opportunities especially in the construction sector to keep up the positive momentum," he added.

Kanger's shares dropped 0.5 sen to 10.5 sen today, valuing it at RM242.67 million.

Another MCO will kill more businesses, warns SME Association

Thursday, 07 Jan 2021 10:58 PM MYT
SME Association of Malaysia vice-president Chin Chee Seong said that another round of MCO would ‘just kill more businesses which are currently just grappling with staying afloat’. — Picture by Farhan Najib
SME Association of Malaysia vice-president Chin Chee Seong said that another round of MCO would ‘just kill more businesses which are currently just grappling with staying afloat’. — Picture by Farhan Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — The SME Association of Malaysia is concerned that another round of movement control order (MCO) might lead to folding of more local businesses and increased unemployment in the country.

Its vice president Chin Chee Seong said in a statement that another round of MCO would “just kill more businesses which are currently just grappling with staying afloat”.

Earlier today, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) also issued a similar statement requesting for business and economic activities to be allowed to continue operating, albeit under stricter standard operating procedures (SOP).

FMM president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai was reported as saying that the federation supports a targeted conditional MCO which is more localised with stricter SOP and travel restrictions but not a total lockdown similar to that implemented in March 2020.

“Although we appreciate the need to strike that delicate balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods, a second round of total lockdown would be disastrous for SMEs which would then be forced to lay off employees,” said Chin, who is also Malaysia Cross-Border e-Commerce Association national president.

He also urged for faster application processing for grants and incentives for local SMEs.

“The reality today is that SMEs continue to suffer significant economic loss as a result of pandemic-induced restrictions and hindrances,” he said.

He said the association has identified numerous measures that the government could undertake to accelerate the recovery for businesses, as well as the economy as a whole from the adverse impact caused by the pandemic.

Among the government’s grants and incentives, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and BSN jointly-managed SME Digitalisation Grant and the Penjana Smart Automation Grant are both widely held to be the most favourable forms of financial assistance for SMEs.

“However, the grant application process is paved with its own set of challenges. Many applicants have experienced long processing times, taking months in some cases, before their applications were matched and approved,” stressed Chin.

He also suggested for more entrepreneurship and digital training programmes to be introduced and implemented, especially for the Malaysian youth community.

He said the government should also consider furnishing businesses with more employee-centric incentives and financial packages in order for them to hire more fresh graduates.

“The SME Association hopes that with all the necessary financial incentives in place and acceleration in the handling and processing of applications by the relevant government agencies, the economy would begin showing signs of recovery by the second quarter of 2021,” Chin concluded. — Bernama

Arab nations first to approve Chinese COVID vaccine — despite lack of public data
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain say the vaccine is 86% effective, but scientists would like to see data to support the claim.
David Cyranoski

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Sinopharm began testing the inactivated COVID-19 jab in Bahrain.

Sinopharm’s COVID vaccine is being trialled in Egypt, Jordan, Argentina and elsewhere.Credit: Mazen Mahdi/AFP/Getty

Two Arab nations have become the first countries to approve a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, a significant boost for China’s plans to roll out its vaccines worldwide. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) approved a vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned Sinopharm on 9 December, and Bahrain followed days later. But researchers say a lack of public data on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine could hinder the company’s plans to distribute the vaccine in a range of other countries.

The Sinopharm vaccine is probably safe and effective and could be a great help in fighting the pandemic, says Jin Dong-Yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. But he notes a lack of available clinical-trial data, and adds that confidence in the vaccine’s safety and efficacy will be key to its successful international distribution.

“Chinese state-run companies, like Sinopharm, can produce billions of doses. They have the capacity and expertise,” he says. “They need to have an open and transparent system, but they are not good at doing that,” he adds.

The UAE and Bahrain are also the first countries to grant full approval to sell a COVID-19 vaccine. Russian officials have licensed two vaccines, but the approvals are conditional and subject to the results of ongoing phase III trials. In China, Sinopharm’s vaccine has been widely deployed under emergency-use authorization, but full approval is expected very soon. The United States and the United Kingdom have issued emergency authorizations for a COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer of New York City and BioNTech of Mainz, Germany.

UAE regulators said in a press release that they had approved an inactivated vaccine developed by Sinopharm’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products. The approval was based on company data stating that the efficacy of the two-dose vaccine was 86% in final-stage testing, including a trial in 31,000 people in the UAE, according to the press release. The vaccine had been granted emergency-use authorization in September. Bahrain officials did not state whether they approved the same Sinopharm vaccine, but it is thought to be the same jab, because they, too, reported 86% efficacy. Some 7,700 people participated in Sinopharm trials there.

The UAE press release also states that 99% of those vaccinated developed neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and that the vaccine prevented moderate and severe disease in everyone vaccinated.
Data gap

But scientists not involved in developing and approving the Chinese vaccines are finding it hard to make sense of the data behind the latest announcements. The UAE reported the phase III efficacy data before Sinopharm did, and the company has yet to confirm that they are correct. Neither the UAE, Bahrain nor Sinopharm have released the data used to make the 86% efficacy claims. “They give no real data. That’s a bit weird,” says Zhengming Chen, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, UK. “It’s difficult to tell how well the vaccine works. I hope it is real.”

Sinopharm did not respond to Nature’s request for more detail on its trial results.

Scientists would like to see data on the number of infections in the groups that received the vaccine and in those that were given a placebo. Such data are used to calculate a vaccine’s effectiveness — and have been released by the makers of several other leading coronavirus vaccines, including that developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. They released some detailed data in a press release in November, before the UK authorization, and published the phase III trial results on 10 December in the New England Journal of Medicine1.
International orders

Chinese state media have reported that Sinopharm has vaccine orders from more than 100 countries, including many in Africa, but few details of such deals have been reported. Sinopharm’s vaccine is also undergoing phase III testing in Egypt, Jordan, Argentina and other countries, so they are likely to be among the next to consider approving it.

Other countries are probably also planning to rely on China for vaccines, because the United States and European nations have pre-purchased billions of doses of the vaccines being developed there, says Jin. Sinopharm’s jab is also appealing because it uses inactivated virus and — unlike the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine — does not need to be stored at extremely cold temperatures, making it easier to transport and distribute.

Chen thinks that there will be some resistance to Chinese vaccines if the companies do not allow independent analysis of the safety and efficacy data. “I don’t think other

An experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinopharm has 86% efficacy against the virus, the United Arab Emirates health ministry said on Wednesday, citing an interim analysis of a human trial underway there.

The Gulf Arab state in July started Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine, developed by Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG). In September, the UAE approved its emergency use for certain groups.

Th ..

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/uae/uae-says-sinopharm-vaccine-has-86-efficacy-against-covid-19/articleshow/79638363.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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