Rate In Malaysia Research Articles

Impact of Economic Factors towards Exchange Rate in Malaysia

Impact of Economic Factors towards Exchange Rate in Malaysia

Evaluation of potential feedstock for biogas production via anaerobic digestion in Malaysia: kinetic studies and economics analysis

ABSTRACT As the population increases, energy demands continue to rise rapidly. In order to satisfy this increasing energy demand, biogas offers a potential alternative. Biogas is economically viable to be produced through anaerobic digestion (AD) from various biomass feedstocks that are readily available in Malaysia, such as food waste (FW), palm oil mill effluent (POME), garden waste (GW), landfill, sewage sludge (SS) and animal manure. This paper aims to determine the potential feedstocks for biogas production via AD based on their characteristics, methane yield, kinetic studies and economic analysis. POME and FW show the highest methane yield with biogas yields up to 0.50 L/g VS while the lowest is 0.12 L/g VS by landfill leachate. Kinetic study shows that modified Gompertz model fits most of the feedstock with R 2 up to 1 indicating that this model can be used for estimating treatment efficiencies of full-scale reactors and performing scale-up analysis. The economic analysis shows that POME has the shortest payback period (PBP), highest internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV). However, it has already been well explored, with 93% of biogas plants in Malaysia using POME as feedstock. The FW generation rate in Malaysia is approximately 15,000 tonnes per day, at the same time FW as the second place shows potential to have a PBP of 5.4 years and 13.3% IRR, which is close to the results achieved with POME. This makes FW suitable to be used as the feedstock for biogas production.

Driving Digital Competency Model Towards IR 4.0 In Malaysia

Today, fourth industrial revolution is causing tremendous uncertainty. These developments transform the way we live, and the way we work. The work environment change the job profiles and therefore requires employees with a wide range of competencies. Digital inclusion today depends largely more on competences than access to technologies. While there are challenges in getting high skilled jobs for the local workforce, the graduate unemployment rate in Malaysia was more than three times higher than national unemployment. The graduate unemployment has raised several queries on relevancy of education systems matching the industry skill needs. Industry has puzzled on skills measures to close the gap of digital skills required. Scholars and policymakers called for more research to discover the root causes of graduate unemployed. The first objective of the study is to investigate the digital skills that industry required and those unemployed graduates currently possess. Second objective is to develop the digital competency model that drives towards industry revolution 4.0. The outcome is to recommend the set of digital skills that graduates required to meet the industry expectations. This study also contributes to policy and practices as the provided competency model that can be applicable to industry 4.0 in the context of Malaysia.

An optimal control model of COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative study of five countries

This paper formulates an optimal control model of COVID-19 pandemic spreading. We discuss the health sector performance of Argentina, Hungary, Egypt, Malaysia, and Iraq. A mathematical model describes an actual case number of COVID-19. We investigate three strategies depend on recovery rate, death rate, and together (optimal). These strategies represent the percent of the health sector development. The explicit solution of the model using the Pontryagin maximum principle is derived. The results showed the ranking of countries based on the new percent of the recovery and death cases. A new percent as a result to the control variable value (health sector development). Also, the development percent of the health sector of each country, was determined. For example, 0.005 led to a significant reduce the death rates in Malaysia. Meanwhile, a half of death rates could reduce by this percent in Egypt.

The Macroeconomic Fundamentals of the Real Exchange Rate in Malaysia: Some Empirical Evidence

The Macroeconomic Fundamentals of the Real Exchange Rate in Malaysia: Some Empirical Evidence

Control Home Appliances Through Internet of Things To Assist Elderly In Their Daily Routine

Aging population rate in Malaysia is getting higher every year. When people becoming older, they start losing their abilities to do some of the activities properly and easily that they were able to do when they were younger. Basic tasks like cooking and cleaning, which were once part of manageable daily routine, become too difficult to perform as they enter to the elderly age. Despite this, many elderlies choose to live independently in their own home. This paper presents a new approach to utilize advanced Internet of Things (IoT) based pulse sensors for elderly. This proposed solution is an embedded scheme that support elderly with controlled automation solution that control and operates various home electrical appliances such as lights, fans, and televisions based on the measurement of pulse rate and instructions. The solution consists of pulse sensors, microcontrollers which integrated with Blynk server as a communication protocol. The proposed solution aims to minimize elderly movement by providing substantial assistance to the physically challenged elderly without assistance from any third person. The scope of the article focuses on enhancing and improving quality life of elderly. The main advantage of the proposed solution is that it is sensible and required zero technology knowledge that provides users with an automation solution with minimum movement needed. The proposed solution reduces human labours, effort, and energy conservation in the meantime. This study is limited to the scale of elderly in Malaysia rather than the whole world.

Climate change and declining fertility rate in Malaysia: the possible connexions.

Climate change is an incessant global phenomenon and has turned contentious in the present century. Malaysia, a developing Asian country, has also undergone significant vicissitudes in climate, which has been projected with significant deviations in forthcoming decades. As per the available studies, climate changes may impact on the fertility, either via direct effects on the gonadal functions and neuroendocrine regulations or via several indirect effects on health, socioeconomic status, demeaning the quality of food and water. Malaysia is already observing a declining trend in the Total fertility rate (TFR) over the past few decades and is currently recorded below the replacement level of 2.1 which is insufficient to replace the present population. Moreover, climate changes reportedly play a role in the emergence and cessation of various infectious diseases. Besides its immediate effects, the long-term effects on health and fertility await to be unveiled. Despite the huge magnitude of the repercussion of climate changes in Malaysia, research that can explain the exact cause of the present reduction in fertility parameters in Malaysia or any measures to preserve the national population is surprisingly very scarce. Thus, the present review aims to elucidate the possible missing links by which climate changes are impairing fertility status in Malaysia.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION EVALUATION FOR ONLINE FOOD SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA

The food delivery service industry is growing up and has a good potential rate in Malaysia and globally now. With social distancing the new norm, consumers are demanding to have takeout food delivered in parallel with government standard procedure in the Covid-19 pandemic. This research was conducted to examine the satisfaction of customers by using online food delivery services in Malaysia using a quantitative method. It will deal with consumer behaviour, needs, and user requirement elements in analysing their perceptions and satisfaction that will give the best-indicated system to understand consumer stability. For the accomplishment of this research, the survey was distributed to the public via online. The development of instruments based on the guideline of System Usability Scale (SUS), the reliable tools for measuring and evaluate a wide variety of products and services. Some modification in basic instruments was done to meet the requirement study. A full-fledged questionnaire was distributed among the 150 to 200 respondents to know their feedback on the food service delivery system in Malaysia. After the process of data cleaning, only 153 respondents included and considered for discussion and debate in this paper. The behaviour and user satisfaction level by using the online food services system will discuss further and some comparisons will be the main output of this research. Overall, most of the respondents satisfied with the service provided by Food Panda Service and Grab Food Service because the system easy to use and delivery time is equitable.

Predictors of dengue mortality among severe dengue patients in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Background: The number of dengue cases globally has grown rapidly since 2010 to 3.2 million cases in 2015. The case fatality rate in Malaysia has increase from below 0.2% to 0.28% in 2015. This puts a heavy clinical and financial burden on endemic countries including Malaysia. Recognizing early determinants of dengue mortality may reduce the fatality rate and the burden of the disease to countries. Methods and materials: All adult fatal dengue cases from January 2015 to March 2019 and all adult severe dengue cases available on hospital EMR from January 2018 to March 2019 in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) were retrospectively included to the study. Demographic data, clinical and biochemical markers at presentation and during admission, and data on clinical outcomes were collected. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were done to determine the significant variables that can be used to predict dengue mortality by using AUROC for the specificity and sensitivity of the model. Results: There were 5246 dengue cases from January 2015 to March 2019. 18 cases were fatal. 1085 cases from January 2018 to March 2019 were reviewed on the hospital EMR. 104 had severe dengue. Univariate analysis showed 14 significant independent variables including diabetes mellitus, chronic renal disease, outbreak area, lethargy, white blood cell (WBC), serum lactate, potassium, urea and creatinine, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase and aspartate aminotransferase. Multivariate analysis showed WBC with Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 0.644, p = 0.002 (95% CI: 0.489–0.849) and creatinine with AOR = 0.992, p = 0.015 (95% CI: 0.986–0.999) as significant predictors of mortality among severe dengue patients. Area Under Receiving Operative Characteristic (AUROC) for WBC at a cut off of 7 mmol/l and creatinine at a cut off of 131.5 mmol/l was 0.896 (p < 0.001) which indicated that they were good predictors for mortality. Conclusion: This study suggests the best prediction model to predict death among severe dengue patients is a model that includes white blood cell count and serum creatinine. These two tests are readily available in all health care settings.

Project governance practices in urban public housing projects: a case study of public housing in Malaysia

The urban public housing project, especially for low-income people, is essential to cater to the increasing urbanisation rate in Malaysia. This study aimed to gain an understanding of the project governance practices in urban public housing projects in Malaysia, which will lead to better project delivery and the successful outcome of the projects. A single case study was conducted on a public housing project or known as Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) in Kuala Lumpur, and data for this study was gathered using semi-structured interviews with six (6) public officials, document analysis, and observation. The findings of this study indicate the positive interplay between project actors guided by the elements of trust, stakeholder management, empowerment, and collective decision making, which create value for the project. Hence, this article contributes to the dynamic understanding of how public officials practice project governance in conducting their works related to urban public housing projects. The findings of the study will enable related public organisations to reinforce the underlying project governance elements towards the strengthening of urban public housing delivery system. Case study research in different models of urban public housing could extend the discovery of other project governance elements while validating the findings of this study from different perspectives. The findings of the study are limited due to the use of a single case study related to the urban public housing project and its contexts.

How Does Immigration Affect Wages and the Unemployment Rate in Malaysia? A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Approach

Malaysia had approximately 2 million migrants in 2018, and this number was increasing dramatically by 25 percent in 2019. Parallels with the aims of country policy to reduce migrant workers&amp;#39; dependency in 2020, managing the workers needs to be clarified. At the same time, the country still needs to keep them for specific sectors. These issues motivate us to analyze the migrant worker&amp;#39;s requirements at different levels of skills and wages. Using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling, at four-level nested CES production function, this study found high skilled migrants will harm wages for the high skilled and skilled groups while the opposite effect was observed for the semiskilled and low-skilled groups. However, when the migrant stock increases slightly below 1 percent, it will reduce the wages for semiskilled workers due to substitution effects. This study also found that the influx of low-skilled migrant workers will reduce salaries for semiskilled and low-skilled workers. The analysis also indicates that a small rise in high skilled immigrant labour will reduce the unemployment rate; likewise, increasing more than 4 percent will increase the unemployment rate. The results provide the policymaker guidelines to employ foreign workers&amp;#39; best skills to control the inequality of wages among skilled and low-skilled workers.

Point forecasts of mortality rates in Malaysia: a comparison of principal component methods

&lt;span&gt;The problem of forecasting mortality has been widely discussed and is being considered as an important issue among actuaries and demographers. Using age and sex-specific mortality data in Malaysia, we compare and evaluate the point forecast accuracy of six principal component methods. These six methods are the Lee-Carter (LC) method, the unadjusted LC method (LCnone), the Lee-Miller (LM) variant, the Booth-Mandonald-Smith variant (BMS) and the two versions of the Hyndman-Ullah (HU). The overall performance of all methods was evaluated using out-sample forecasts based on the six error measures of three different data spanning with three different step-ahead forecasts. The data set consists of annual age-specific death rates (ASDR) for 17 age groups for both genders for the years 1980 to 2011. Results show that when the fitted period is longer, the LM method exhibits a better fit in Malaysia male ASDR and the HU6 method attains a better fit in Malaysia female ASDR. When the fitted period becomes shorter, the BMS method outperforms for male and HU1 for female ASDR. However, for overall performance, the LM method consistently outperforms others for Malaysia male ASDR and the LM and HU methods are the best good of fit for Malaysia ASDR.&lt;/span&gt;

Prioritizing Factors Affecting Deceased Organ Donation in Malaysia: Is a New Organ Donation System Required?

PurposeThe gap between the demand and the supply of human organs for transplantation is on the rise in Malaysia, despite the efforts of governments to promote donor registration. Factors affecting willingness to donate are contextual and vary from country to country. This research mainly focuses on the selection of most suitable organ donation system through factors affecting willingness to donate in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to prioritize those factors acting as the pillars of the organ donation system and further to select the most suitable organ donation system for Malaysia.Patients and MethodsThe data were collected from 35 experts by using a bipolar questionnaire. The study applied an analytical hierarchal process (AHP) for prioritization factors contributing to willingness to donate and then selection of a suitable organ donation system based on prioritized factors.ResultsBased on the AHP results, it is evident that donation perception (0.36) has the highest priority in influencing organ donation rates, followed by socioeconomic status (0.32), demographic factors (0.23), and financial incentives (0.09). Further, our results challenge the existing opt-in donation system in Malaysia and present a presumptive approach as a suitable system for increasing deceased donation rate in Malaysia. Presumptive approach promotes the role of health-care professionals in securing the family consent.ConclusionThis approach is a person-oriented rather than process-oriented strategy and it relies on designated requesters’ skills to evoke altruism among bereaved families. Based on results, the authors recommended that relevant government agencies focus on training nurses to discuss donation with bereaved families and raising public awareness.

Consumers’ Intention to Use Mobile Payment: A Case of Quick Response (QR) Code Applications

Many transactions, nowadays such as banking, transportations, online shopping and bills payments, are implemented using mobile payment. To date, many mobile payment services are available in Malaysia, with companies offering their services competitively. However, adoption rates in Malaysia are considered slow due to many reasons. This study investigates the factors that affect consumer intention to use mobile payment based on QR code technology. A proposed model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model was adapted to identify the factors that affect the use of mobile payments. A survey instrument was developed based on the proposed model. Data were collected from 50 consumers who used QR code mobile payments in Klang Valley. The quantitative analysis method was adopted and the SPSS statistical tool was used to analyze the data using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results have shown that several factors significantly affect consumer intention to use QR code-based payment namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit, and trust. This study provides meaningful insight on the reasons why consumers used QR codebased payment.

Conceptualizing Sustainable Livelihood for Single Parent Households

Poverty rates in Malaysia are shown to decline over the years. However, the decline in poverty rates do not necessarily reflect the overall socioeconomic status of the population. Absolute poverty may have decreased substantially but relative poverty remains as an issue that needs to be addressed rigorously. Poverty and single parenting have been widely documented in international as well as local literature. Factors such as the number of dependents, employment in the informal sector, unemployment, health issues, and low education attainment contribute to the economic and financial hardship of single parent households. These situations each on its own or exist concurrently threatened the wellbeing and standard of living of the single parent households. The occurrence of single-father households is deemed to be much lower than that of single mother households though the exact numbers is officially unavailable. Therefore, obtaining a sustainable source of livelihood is of paramount importance for single parents. Amidst insufficient institutional supports and probably familial supports as well, ensuring regular and dependable income become an issue that warrant further research. Hence, the purpose of this research is to evaluate and develop sustainable livelihood programs for single parent households from the poor families in a few villages in Baling, Kedah. We would adapt the method of action research used by Collins, Morduch, Rutherford, and Ruthven (2009) for this study.

SMEs Financing Issues in Malaysia: Youth Entrepreneurs Perspective

The youth unemployment rate in Malaysia is three times higher than the total population. Unemployment among youth can have negative effects on the economy and social landscape if not curbed. It is widely accepted that entrepreneurship is capable to reduce unemployment rate as well as stimulate economic growth. However, new business entry in Malaysia has stagnated in the past 10 years and remained lower than the OECD average. Access to financing is one of the most prominent challenges facing by SMEs. The situation becomes worse for youth entrepreneurs as they are considered high risk profile and unable to secure financing especially from financial institutions. A survey by Khazanah Research Institute highlighted that only 6% of youth entrepreneurs in Malaysia are getting financing from financial institutions even though financial institutions are considered as predominant source of funds to SMEs. This study aims to understand the challenges facing youth entrepreneurs in Malaysia in accessing financing from financial institutions. In line with the present aims, an attempt is made to identify sources of financing used by youth entrepreneurs, challenges encountered in accessing financing and reasons for not applying for financing. The findings are based on a sample of 260 youth entrepreneurs in Malaysia through questionnaires. The results revealed that youth entrepreneurs use informal financing sources like personal savings. The most pressing problem among youth entrepreneurs who had experiences in accessing financing assistance from financial institutions is lack of track records while interest rate is the main reason for youth entrepreneurs who never had experience in accessing financing assistance from financial institutions.

Eggshell as the partial replacement of Portland cement in the production of concrete

The population rate in Malaysia is increasing thus contributing to more undesirable wastes pollute the environment and the development in Malaysia flourishes rapidly. Consequently, the requirement of concrete is escalating thus maximizing the production of Portland cement. Such production liberates more carbon dioxide and causes air pollution. This study investigates the use of poultry waste in concrete production by replacing eggshell powder with Portland cement. Eggshell is identified rich in calcium similar to what cement has as it mainly contains 93.70% calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Chicken eggshells are collected, cleaned, dried, grinded and sieved until the desired 90 µm size. 4 different batches are prepared by substituting 10-30% of eggshell powder with Portland cement in order to determine the suitability of eggshell powder as the partial replacement by investigating both workability and mechanical properties of eggshell blended batches via slump test and 3 destructive tests respectively. Consequently, the workability experiences reduction in the range of 30-70% whereas the results of all 3 destructive tests decrease in the range of 13-48% as the amount of eggshell powder increases. To conclude, eggshell powder is unsuitable for projects that require high strength concrete but may be suitable for projects that require less strength concrete.

A 5-year review of malaria surveillance in Kuching, Sarawak

Introduction: Malaria is endemic in Sarawak contributing to the highest incidence rate in Malaysia. Kuching division consists of three main areas, namely Kuching district, Lundu and Bau. This review aims to highlight the trends of malaria over the past five years in terms of demographic characteristics and vector control programmes and to identify factors that contribute to the difficulty in malaria control programme in this state. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive review of malaria cases based on surveillance data compiled from 2000 to 2004. Data is analysed based on demographic background, malaria species, type of malaria infection and vector control activities between the three districts. Results: Lundu has the highest average 5-year incidence rate per 10,000 population of 121.97 as compared to the national figure of 4.10. Malaria is more prevalent in males (14.3%) than females (5.7%). Among the race, Dayaks had the highest prevalence rate (66.5%). Peak age affected is between 15 to 40 years. The predominant species was Plasmodium vivax (65.4%) followed by Plasmodium falciparum (32.8%). For occupation, the majority of cases were among villagers (55.2%) followed by foreign workers (19.0%). Cases were detected mainly by passive case detection (82.7%) and blood film for malarial parasites was positive in 2.67%. For malaria control activities, focal spraying were successfully done in 94.4% of the structures, regular spraying in 89.5% structures, impregnated bednet distribution among 38.2% population and mass drug administration distributed among 80.7% of the population. Conclusion: Results analysis has shown that the incidence rate of malaria in Kuching division is very high, particularly in Lundu district. Although activities conducted by the malaria control programme is sufficient, it has not been able to successfully reduce the incidence of malaria in this region. Problems identified include difficulty in accessing the affected areas, movements of illegal immigrants, financial constraints and lack of training of field staff involved in malaria control. Recommendations include integrating malaria control measures with cross border agents, community participation, aggressive surveillance programmes and improvement of vector control.

Implications of Generic Skills on Innovative Behavior Towards Opportunity Recognition in Youth

The high competition in the employment market and high unemployment rate prompted the government to encourage entrepreneurship as a career option for students further. Many entrepreneurship programs and courses have been developed and offered in higher learning institutions to encourage innovative behavior and the ability to recognize opportunities, especially in the emerging digitization world and the high unemployment rate in Malaysia. Generic skills such as creativity, proactiveness, risk-propensity, leadership, motivation, and self-efficacy are said to be essential determinants for innovative behavior. This paper aims to investigate the impact of generic skills on innovative behavior and opportunity recognition empirically. The online survey was conducted on 225 students who took a technology entrepreneurship course at a Malaysian university. Data were then analyzed using Partial Least Square software. Only creativity and proactive have a strong influence on innovative behavior and opportunity recognition. The mixed results implied that more efforts to carry out to enhance further the innovative behavior of students in preparing them to real-world challenges. It is timely to readdress how to improve further and strengthen the generic skills of students. Recommendation and suggestions are presented.

MALAYSIAN ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME (ETP) AND PATTERN OF JOB FLOWS IN MANUFACTURING SECTOR: 2005-2015

Economic transformation is vital for a country. In addition to helping to boost the economy, economic restructuring also affects market workers especially in terms of unemployment. However, the unemployment rate in Malaysia at an average of 3 per cent annually reflects that the restructuring has not to affect labour. Therefore, this study aims to study the pattern of job flow due to economic transformation undertaken by the Malaysian government in 2010. Descriptive analysis shows that there exists job reallocation in the Malaysian manufacturing sector from 2005 to 2015, and it was dominated by the pattern of job creation rather than job destruction, for the whole manufacturing sector or at the technological level. Based on the results of this study, this paper proposes the Malaysian government and policymakers to consider other methods, as well as the unemployment rate to analyse the labour market performance. This study proposes the use of job flow method as one of the labour market indicators in the economy.