KUALA LUMPUR (June 3): Dispelling the notion of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) turning into a fund that works more for the rich following massive Covid-19 withdrawals, its chief executive officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan cites hard facts about who 80% of its members are.
In an exclusive interview with The Edge at the EPF’s new headquarters in Kwasa Damansara, Amir relates how the country’s largest fund is expanding the social protection web, stepping up shareholder activism, and putting more money into domestic investments without jeopardising members’ returns.
He also spoke on how it does not take that high a monthly income to be among the top 20% of the EPF’s active members — reflecting the country’s generally low wages.
Rather than raising contribution rates, Amir reckons that wages need to move higher alongside productivity so that more members can attain better retirement savings.
In The Edge’s cover story 1, Amir also provided clarity about Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s “hope” of seeing the EPF raise domestic investments to 70% this year.
Meanwhile, in The Edge’s cover story 2, we spoke to Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB)’s managing director Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, who concedes that the country's main gateway, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, is slipping further behind its regional peers.
KLIA has frequently been associated with poor airport infrastructure development — particularly in more recent years — with critics pointing to the stark contrast between KLIA and Singapore's Changi Airport just across the Causeway.
Frequent leadership changes at the airport operator, coupled with a national airport development policy that is outdated, has made it challenging for MAHB to keep up with regional competition, a predicament now further complicated by headwinds from the Covid-19 pandemic and changes in government.
To stem the decline, the group has come out with a three-pillar approach to improving its service level and the airport infrastructure.
Less than six months ahead of his contract expiry, the 57-year-old is hoping that he can instil a “DNA of excellence” into MAHB’s 8,900 employees, which would ensure the group remains on its journey of transformation.
Acknowledging that the airport operator could have done better in the upkeep of its assets and service, Iskandar Mizal concedes that MAHB may have become complacent over the years.
“But while [recent problems at] KLIA is a disgrace, airports are strategic national assets that belong to the government under the OA (operating agreement),” he observes, and pointedly notes the Singapore government’s support for the aviation industry in higher passenger service charges and the implementation of an airport development levy on passengers, to help fund airport development.
While MAHB has turned the corner in its financial year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY2022) after two straight years of losses, it is not expecting full recovery to 2019 levels until the first half of 2024, or the first quarter at the earliest. Malaysia's passenger volume crossed the 100 million mark for the first time in 2019, to reach a record 105.26 million passengers.
Iskandar Mizal attributes the gap to the slow return of Chinese travellers to the country. "In the meantime, we are positioning ourselves to make sure that when the Chinese tourists start to return to the country, we will be ready for them,” he says.
Read more about the two cover stories in The Edge Weekly’s June 5 edition.
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