Tuesday July 8, 2008
EPF cautious with overseas investments
KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will be cautious with its overseas investment decisions amid the current global economic setback.
“The fund will make sure it is investing properly and choosing the right markets,” said chief executive officer Datuk Azlan Zainol, who added that the volume of stock exchanges globally had dropped significantly.
He was speaking to reporters after the official opening of the International Social Security Association's liaison office for South-East Asia yesterday.
He said that last month, EPF had invested US$2.6bil (RM8.5bil) in overseas markets.
EPF, whose total fund size stood at RM320.81bil as at end March this year, registered an investment income of RM4.11bil for the first quarter of this year. The income was up by 7.7% from the previous quarter.
Investment in equities contributed a significant RM1.06bil, a 51.2% increase from the RM698.21mil earned in the pervious quarter.
Other major contributors to the EPF’s income were Loans and Bonds at RM1.59bil and Malaysian Government Securities at RM1.24bil.
Speaking on the association, Azlan said closer cooperation among social security organisations in Asean would be fostered with the setting up of the liaison office here.
“This is the first liaison office for the International Social Security Association in South-East Asia. The association office is in Geneva.
“(The office) handles a lot of things especially in the field of training, research, getting new ideas, exchange of new ideas between the officers and our country members in Southeast Asia and also with the rest of the world,” said Azlan.
The EPF’s appointment to host the association's office is for three years and stands to be extended with good performance. – Bernama.
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