Yesterday, Malaysian parliament voted to pass two bills that would legalize app hailing services like Grab and Uber, making the race between the two for Southeast Asian domination just a little bit hotter.
Earlier this week, Grab, Malaysian founded and now Singapore-based, announced another US$2.5 billion raised from their investors, as they position themselves to being the go-to in the 41 separate markets they operate in.
The official legal clearance of e-hailing car service operations comes after month of grey-area existence. However, after amending and Public Transport Act and the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (CVLB) Act, they’ve now been given an “intermediation business license.”
And if this sounds to you like something a bunch of politicians just made up, having tasted the sweet life of regulated taxi fares, and clean vehicles, then yes – you’re right, and very in-tune to ups and downs of the e-hailing app world.
Reuters writes that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Cabinet saw the customer value in the service, as well as the drivers’ financial gains, and agreed to legalize ride-hailing services last year.
And they’ve kept to their word.
Now there’s a rarity in politics.
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