EPF to expand investment portfolio , increase investment assets, says CEO

by **Cals** Mon 17 Jun 2013, 18:42

Business & Markets 2013

Written by Bernama

Monday, 17 June 2013 14:46

KUALA LUMPUR (June 17): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is considering expanding its investment portfolio and increasing its investment assets in the new sectors this year.
Chief executive officer, Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, said the new sectors were healthcare and industrial, among others.
Currently, EPF's main contributors were fixed income (Bursa Malaysia and government bonds), which accounted for 65 per cent and 35 per cent from equities and others, he said.
"We are looking at the sectors that are actually robust this time and not so dependent on economic cycles as we want to maintain our record in bringing stable returns to our depositors.
"Our target has always been to provide the real return, which is inflation plus two per cent," he told reporters after the visit by Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan to EPF here today.
Meanwhile, Shahril said the EPF expected 80,000 employers to register with the newly-launched online application, e-Caruman, by year-end.
"We have just launched e-Caruman. We intend to basically wrapped up the numbers as we undertake more promotion and education to attract them.
"Currently, we do not have problems with big employers (multinational corporations and government-linked companies), they already do it electronically.
"Our target is the smaller and mid-scale employers," he said.
He said many employers still resorted to manual submission and there were many errors, which had resulted in the money could not be credited to the right accounts immediately.
"So, we spent a lot of time and money, basically correcting the errors.
"By going online, it will be easier for us to detect the errors in the form submitted to us and the employers can correct them," he said. – Bernama