As we mark Malaysia Day on September 16, we look at how businesses are growing across East Malaysia. Malaysian SMEs are often discussed as one broad group, but what does it actually take to build and scale a business in Sabah and Sarawak, and how different is that experience from Peninsular Malaysia?

Theophilus Wong, Sarawak State Chairman and National Deputy Treasurer of SAMENTA, describes the SME landscape in East Malaysia. We get into the challenges preventing East Malaysian SMEs from scaling, and where their next growth opportunities lie.

As we mark Malaysia Day on September 16, we look at how businesses are growing across East Malaysia. Malaysian SMEs are often discussed as one broad group, but what does it actually take to build and scale a business in Sabah and Sarawak, and how different is that experience from Peninsular Malaysia?Theophilus Wong, Sarawak State Chairman and National Deputy Treasurer of SAMENTA, describes the SME landscape in East Malaysia. We get into the challenges preventing East Malaysian SMEs from scaling, and where their next growth opportunities lie.

Helping you navigate the ever-changing universe of business, from headlines to the bottom line

Helping you navigate the ever-changing universe of business, from headlines to the bottom line

Enterprise Explores

Sabah and Sarawak: What SMEs Need to Scale

The US 10-year Treasury yield breached the psychologically significant 5% mark in mid-September, and it could keep climbing. Is the sell-off of US bonds the start of a longer trend, or a storm that will soon pass? And what does it mean for Malaysia's own borrowing costs and bond market?

We get into:


What's driving the spike: Inflation risk, foreign selling, and fiscal concerns behind the surge in yields, and why Barnabas sees these drivers as largely transitory rather than structural.


Brent Oil Prices: Why he expects Brent to ease back to around $85 by year-end, even with tensions still simmering in the Middle East.


Who's selling, and why it matters: Why the sell-off looks concentrated in Japan and Greater China, and what that tells us about how serious it really is.


Echoes of 1981: Whether today's environment has anything in common with the last time US yields ran this high, and what eventually broke that cycle.


What it means for Malaysia: How a US Treasury sell-off could push 10-year MGS yields higher, whether Bank Negara is closer to a rate hike, and why foreign inflows into Malaysian bonds are holding up despite the global bond rout.

The US 10-year Treasury yield breached the psychologically significant 5% mark in mid-September, and it could keep climbing. Is the sell-off of US bonds the start of a longer trend, or a storm that will soon pass? And what does it mean for Malaysia's own borrowing costs and bond market?We get into:<ul><li>What's driving the spike: Inflation risk, foreign selling, and fiscal concerns behind the surge in yields, and why Barnabas sees these drivers as largely transitory rather than structural.</li><li>Brent Oil Prices: Why he expects Brent to ease back to around $85 by year-end, even with tensions still simmering in the Middle East.</li><li>Who's selling, and why it matters: Why the sell-off looks concentrated in Japan and Greater China, and what that tells us about how serious it really is.</li><li>Echoes of 1981: Whether today's environment has anything in common with the last time US yields ran this high, and what eventually broke that cycle.</li><li>What it means for Malaysia: How a US Treasury sell-off could push 10-year MGS yields higher, whether Bank Negara is closer to a rate hike, and why foreign inflows into Malaysian bonds are holding up despite the global bond rout.</li></ul>

The US Bond Sell-Off: What's Behind It?

If you're an SME owner, here's a number to pay attention to: RM3 million. That's the new e-Invoicing exemption threshold that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced during his Merdeka address at the end of August, the second time this threshold has moved in under a year.

Soh Lian Seng, Head of Tax at KPMG Malaysia, talks about what this shifting compliance landscape means for SMEs, and what businesses should be doing now to keep up.

We get into:


The moving threshold: The e-Invoicing exemption line has shifted three times in under nine months, from RM500,000 to RM1 million to RM3 million, exempting over a million businesses.


The sunk cost problem: What happens to businesses that invested early in accounting software and training, only to find themselves exempt entirely.


The oversight trade-off: Whether exempting so many businesses undercuts the government's goal of real-time tax visibility.


GST vs SST: Whether folding GST-style features like input tax credits into SST is actually workable.


The voluntary disclosure windows: What to do now, with the Stamp Duty Voluntary Disclosure Programme deadline approaching and a longer runway on the e-Invoicing Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme.


SST's wider net: What SMEs need to check now that SST covers more goods and services.

If you're an SME owner, here's a number to pay attention to: RM3 million. That's the new e-Invoicing exemption threshold that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced during his Merdeka address at the end of August, the second time this threshold has moved in under a year.Soh Lian Seng, Head of Tax at KPMG Malaysia, talks about what this shifting compliance landscape means for SMEs, and what businesses should be doing now to keep up.We get into:<ul><li>The moving threshold: The e-Invoicing exemption line has shifted three times in under nine months, from RM500,000 to RM1 million to RM3 million, exempting over a million businesses.</li><li>The sunk cost problem: What happens to businesses that invested early in accounting software and training, only to find themselves exempt entirely.</li><li>The oversight trade-off: Whether exempting so many businesses undercuts the government's goal of real-time tax visibility.</li><li>GST vs SST: Whether folding GST-style features like input tax credits into SST is actually workable.</li><li>The voluntary disclosure windows: What to do now, with the Stamp Duty Voluntary Disclosure Programme deadline approaching and a longer runway on the e-Invoicing Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme.</li><li>SST's wider net: What SMEs need to check now that SST covers more goods and services.</li></ul>

RM3 Million e-Invoicing Threshold: What SMEs Need to Know

Melvin Chee, Co-Founder and CEO of RPG Commerce, and Deepak Sharma, retail executive and mentor at Endeavor, talk about a tension entrepreneurs rarely talk about openly: how to tell good advice from bad, and when to trust your own conviction over someone else's experience.

Melvin Chee, Co-Founder and CEO of RPG Commerce, and Deepak Sharma, retail executive and mentor at Endeavor, talk about a tension entrepreneurs rarely talk about openly: how to tell good advice from bad, and when to trust your own conviction over someone else's experience.

Sabah and Sarawak: What SMEs Need to Scale

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