Malaysia hosted the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuching, Sarawak — the first time the event had been held on Malaysian soil. The timing carried domestic political weight, as the government under Najib Razak was actively promoting large-scale international sporting events as soft-power initiatives, even as the 1MDB scandal was beginning to surface publicly. Nordic gold, an aluminum-bronze alloy developed in the 1990s, was chosen here as it had been for much of Bank Negara's commemorative output during this period — cost-effective and visually distinct from circulation coinage.
Malaysia hosted the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuching, Sarawak — the first time the event had been held on Malaysian soil. The timing carried domestic political weight, as the government under Najib Razak was actively promoting large-scale international sporting events as soft-power initiatives, even as the 1MDB scandal was beginning to surface publicly. Nordic gold, an aluminum-bronze alloy developed in the 1990s, was chosen here as it had been for much of Bank Negara's commemorative output during this period — cost-effective and visually distinct from circulation coinage.