KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 (Reuters) – When dozens of armed
Filipinos landed by boat on Malaysia’s part of Borneo island
last month claiming to be a “royal army” and pressing an obscure
historic claim, it seemed like a bizarre incident that would
soon be resolved and forgotten.

Three weeks later, 27 people including eight Malaysian
policemen have been killed, sparking a political crisis ahead of
elections for both the Philippine and Malaysian governments and
raising concerns of instability in resource-rich Sabah state.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Thailand’s government will hold formal peace talks with a major Muslim rebel group for the first time next month, marking a breakthrough in efforts to end a worsening conflict in the country’s south that has claimed over 5,000 lives since 2004.

Senior Thai officials and members of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) group signed the agreement for the talks in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. However, there was no immediate word whether it would be accompanied by a ceasefire, following an upsurge in violence in southern Thailand, near the border with Malaysia, in recent months.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Nazir Razak, the chief
executive of Malaysian bank CIMB, says his country is
“at a crossroads” ahead of elections that his brother, the prime
minister, must call within weeks. The same can be said of his
bank.

A $3.7 billion Asia expansion by CIMB, aiming where others
have failed to build a regional powerhouse by tapping
fast-growing markets, is running into stiff headwinds from
competition, rising costs and capital constraints.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Chinese firms will invest
more than $1.6 billion to build steel, aluminium and palm oil
processing plants and expand a port in a new industrial zone on
the Malaysian east coast, Malaysia announced on Tuesday.

The Chinese spending is part of total joint investments of
10.5 billion ringgit ($3.5 billion) expected by 2020 in the new
Kuantan Industrial Park as Beijing moves to deepen its ties with
the Southeast Asian nation.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Malaysian stocks suffered
their biggest drop in 16 months on Monday as investors woke up
to the risks of what is expected to be the Southeast Asian
country’s closest national election.

Speculation that Prime Minister Najib Razak would call the
election has been swirling as far back as 2011, but his window
for going to the polls is narrowing fast ahead of an April 28
deadline for dissolving parliament.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian economist Azrul Azwar gave a presentation in Singapore last week that cost him his job.

His analysis, outlining risks for investors from a narrow election victory for Malaysia’s opposition, was reported by a Malaysian online news site as a prediction the long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government would fall this year.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s Axiata Group Bhd
, Asia’s third-largest mobile services group outside
Japan and China by subscribers, is eyeing deals in Bangladesh,
Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but reckons getting into Myanmar will
be “very tough”, CEO Jamaludin Ibrahim said in an interview.

Axiata, valued at close to $19 billion and with a cash pile
of $2.8 billion, is expanding in the fast-growing Asian telecoms
sector as Jamaludin nips at the heels of Southeast Asian market
leader Singapore Telecommunications Ltd and India’s
Bharti Airtel Ltd.