Welcome Remarks at Bersama InvestSmart® @ Sarawak 2022
Speaker: Dato’ Seri Dr. Awang Adek Hussin, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia Location: Vivacity Mall Kuching, Sarawak Delivered: 17 September 2022
Note: This is the speech as drafted and may differ from the delivered version
Highlights:
Sustainability, alternative financing and investor education are the three primary focuses of the SC in Sarawak this week.
Sarawak’s abundance in natural resources puts the state in a strong position to drive the sustainability agenda
The capital market can play its role in contributing to Sarawak’s Development Strategy 2030 of becoming a developed state by 2030. This can be achieved through –
Empowering investors for wealth creation;
Encouraging the use of alternative financing to grow MSMEs; and
Promoting SRI for long-term economic growth.
Investment scams have become a global issue, having increased significantly over the last two years.
InvestSmart is an essential initiative that the SC is undertaking to equip Malaysians with the knowledge and access to capital market opportunities - ‘An informed investor is a protected investor’.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh and salam sejahtera.
Bagi pihak Suruhanjaya Sekuriti Malaysia, sering dikenali sebagai SC, saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Datang dan selamat menyambut Hari Malaysia kepada semua para hadirin yang dihormati sekalian.
Semoga negara kita kekal aman dan makmur, memajukan ekonomi memantapkan perpaduan.
Pada petang yang amat bermakna ini, saya ingin menyampaikan ucapan terima kasih yang tidak terhingga kepada Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Premier Sarawak, di atas kesudian beliau hadir merasmikan Bersama InvestSmart, satu inisiatif investor outreach SC yang pertama kali diadakan secara fizikal sejak pandemik Covid-19.
Sesungguhnya kehadiran Yang Amat Berhormat adalah amat bermakna bagi SC dan seluruh warganya. Kami terasa begitu bertuah dan terhutang budi kepada Yang Amat Berhormat. Semoga Yang Amat Berhormat kekal memimpin Sarawak yang progresif ke arah Sarawak Maju 2030.
Saya dan rakan-rakan amat teruja berada di Bumi Kenyalang bertuah ini yang kaya dengan sumber asli, kepelbagaian etnik dan budaya, pada masa yang sama peneraju kepada bidang teknologi IT, energy baru dan energy diperbaharui.
Overview
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, we are confronted with a unique set of macroeconomic and geo-political issues, and how we navigate and emerge from these challenges will be critical to our future well-being.
Even as we observe early recovery in many parts of the world, after two years of the pandemic, nations around the world face overlapping challenges with far-reaching consequences. War, supply chain disruptions and inflation are threatening economic well-being. This is on top of the longer-term concerns on climate change.
In Malaysia, while we continue to see a strong recovery in the second quarter, our economy is highly integrated with the global economy, and our financial markets are not immune to global events.
In this context, I would like to applaud the Sarawak government, led by Yang Amat Berhormat Premier, for the vision in rolling out the Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030. I understand that the Plan aims to address reforms of the economy as Sarawak strives to become a high income and fully developed by 2030.
Social security issues
Nation-wide, there are also several significant long-term domestic issues that we must address. One of them is social security or retirement security. Even before the pandemic, Malaysia’s retirement security was a major issue. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has worsened the problem.
This is all happening amidst the longer-term structural trends of a rapidly ageing society, accelerating digitalisation, and the changing nature of work. While many Malaysians may appear financially secure today - we must recognise the potential precarity and vulnerabilities that we may face in the future.
Empowering investors
Given the environment and prevailing circumstances, it is why we need more financial education and better financial planning. Malaysians will need assistance in managing their financial future now, more than ever.
One of SC’s core mandates is to regulate and ensure the development of the Malaysian capital market. These are always done with the objective of protecting investors, including initiatives to raise their levels of financial and investment literacy. In simple terms, financial literacy is about better understanding of the true meanings of savings, investing and long-term financial planning.
In ensuring that investors are able to make informed financial and investment decisions, the SC continues to give priority to investor empowerment initiatives through an investor education programme.
This includes adopting greater use of social media platforms to alert vulnerable investors of possible scams or unlicensed activities, and widening investor outreach programmes to be more targeted towards senior and non-urban investors.
Introduction to InvestSmart
Ladies and gentlemen,
With this purpose and responsibility in mind, we established InvestSmart in 2014 to reach out to all Malaysians, and provide them with the necessary knowledge and access to capital market investment opportunities. We believe that “an informed investor is a protected investor.”
Happily, this is the first time we are here in Sarawak as part of the investor education agenda. We had planned to visit Kuching in 2020, but COVID-19 prevented us from coming. Today we are extremely pleased to be here to fulfil our ambition to bring InvestSmart to Sarawakians.
It is also indeed very timely and opportune for us to be here in Sarawak – given the immense and growing interest in sustainability and the broader ESG agenda. There is really no place better aligned to this megatrend. Sarawak is a land of great abundance, and it holds immense promise. Well-endowed naturally, Sarawak has significant comparative advantage to be in this space, including in renewable energy and carbon market. I am personally very excited to be here today for this reason.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have lined up many exciting activities over the next two days -
Our 28 exhibitors come from a wide variety of agencies, industry associations, and intermediaries. Visitors can get access to all the information they need on the capital market and its products and services.
In addition, we have a dedicated booth for the Financial Education Network (FEN), where you can learn about the national agenda to improve Malaysians’ financial literacy.
There will be talks by subject matter experts on various topics on the capital market. If you are lucky, you might be able to win prizes after the sessions by answering some simple quiz questions.
Together with the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) and the Malaysian Financial Planning Council (MFPC), we have free financial planning consultations by licensed financial planners called #FinPlan4U. All visitors need to do is go to the dedicated FinPlan4U booths and sign up for the free one-hour financial planning session. Slots are limited, so please sign up as soon as possible.
Ladies and gentlemen,
InvestSmart @ Sarawak is not intended just for retail investors only.
Last Thursday, our InvestSmart team was at a secondary school in Samarahan to conduct the Agen Bijak Labur Desa (ABJAD) programme. This initiative is specifically meant to improve the rural population’s financial and investment literacy, and to equip them with knowledge that will assist them in avoiding investment scams.
We also held a Face-to-Face Digital Clinic programme for the Urban B40 population in Sri Wangi. This programme was created to promote digital inclusion amongst the B40 and Senior populations. We will continue these programmes on Monday at different locations.
We have also organised two industry sessions for state agencies, businesses and Micro Small-and-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to raise awareness and understanding of the different capital market funding solutions available to them.
This morning, we held a panel session on alternative financing through the capital market for MSMEs. I hope this will help them explore viable avenues for accessing capital to meet their needs.
On Monday, in collaboration with the Economic Planning Unit Sarawak, we will have a forum for state agencies and Sarawak companies on sustainable and responsible investment. Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at the SC. We need to think about our future generations and how they will be impacted by our decisions. And as I mentioned earlier – we earnestly believe that Sarawak holds great promise to advance the sustainability agenda.
Scam awareness
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before I end, I would like to touch a little bit on scams. This is a global issue and it is not peculiar to Malaysia. And around the world, scams are becoming more sophisticated.
Over the last two years, Malaysia has seen a significant increase in online scams. From 2020 to May 2022, almost 72,000 scams, amounting to RM5.2 billion in losses were reported. Investment scams accounted for close to 12,000 of the overall number of scams.
Similarly, the SC has noted a substantial increase in complaints and enquiries on scams and unlicensed activities, particularly between 2020 to June 2022.
In 2020, the SC received almost 1,800 complaints and enquiries, and in 2021, this figure increased to near 3,500. In the first half this year, we have received 1,350 complaints and enquiries about scams and unlicensed activities.
Scammers are now mostly using social media channels such as WhatsApp and Facebook to target their victims. And recently, we have seen them using Telegram to carry out their illegal activities.
Typically, before parting with their money, people will conduct careful research or get second opinions and proper advice before making their investment decision. Scammers, on the other hand, are good at exploiting people’s desire for a quick and high return, and their fear of missing.
We encourage investors to look at our SC Investor Alert List, which identifies unauthorised and unlicensed entities. If in doubt, please call our hotline or send an email to our aduan email address.
Closing
In closing, I would also like to say a BIG Terima Kasih to Yang Amat Berhormat Premier, the Sarawak state government and the various state agencies for their support and partnership.
I would like to take this moment to thank all our exhibitors, speakers and financial planners who participated in our event. A special appreciation also goes out to FPAM and MFPC for their assistance.
Last but not least, to all our guests, I hope you will make the most of your time here by attending the various sessions that we have organised. Thank you once again for coming to Bersama InvestSmart @ Sarawak
The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) was established on 1 March 1993 under the Securities Commission Act 1993 (SCA). We are a self-funded statutory body entrusted with the responsibility to regulate and develop the Malaysian capital market.
