KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (NNN-Bernama) — Malayan Banking Bhd has endowed RM21 million (US$5 million) to the Asia School of Business to establish the Maybank ASEAN Research Center (Maybank ARC), aimed to be a centre of intellectual activity in Southeast Asia conducting research on topics surrounding emerging markets in the region.
The Asia School of Business is a collaboration between the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Sloan School of Management and Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia.
In a statement today, the bank said the endowment is part of Maybank and Maybank ARC’s common goal to improve the lives of ASEAN citizens, and is based on a mutual understanding that social welfare can be a bridge towards improving policy-making.
Co-chair of the Maybank ARC and Maybank group chief human capital officer Nora Manaf said that data and information are imperative to power insights which guide policy-makers to respond swiftly to crises, improve economic growth, and enhance resilience to future shocks.
“As a leading financial institution in ASEAN, with a mission to humanise financial services, we want to serve our communities not only by providing sustainable financing solutions and supporting the under-banked.
“We are now extending our reach to them by making available impactful research findings that can benefit society as a whole. We believed that the real-world discoveries can better prepare us all to overcome existential challenges and seize opportunities in today’s volatile operating environment,” she said.
Maybank said to date, Maybank ARC at Asia School of Business’ flagship research studies had provided an in-depth look and analysis into two studies related to the pandemic.
The first, published in September 2021, explored the rationale behind vaccine hesitancy in Malaysia and whether social norms and government policies play roles in affecting one’s decision to register for vaccinations.
The second, an ongoing study, explores the Malaysian “hawker culture” and the impact of COVID-19 on their operations, the statement said.
The first study titled “Norms, Trust, and Increasing Vaccine Registration in Malaysia – Preliminary Results”, can be found at https://asb.edu.my/research-papers/norms-trust-and-increasing-vaccine-re….
The research study’s preliminary findings titled “The Roadside Economy in Malaysia” will be released soon and will be available at https://asb.edu.my/faculty-research/the-asean-research-center-arc.
