Dividend a surprise, much more than economists predicted, says ecperts
PETALING JAYA: With the current economic challenges, the 5.35% dividend by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for 2022 is considered good for contributors, say economists.
Sunway University Economic Studies Programme director Prof Yeah Kim Leng called it laudable given last year’s challenging local and international financial as well as capital market conditions.
The Russian-Ukraine conflict and spikes in inflation and interest rates weren’t of help either, he said.
“Though lower than last year’s 6.1%, the 5.35% is above earlier expectations that were close to 5%,” said Prof Yeah.
“The performance is also respectable as the fund had to adjust its portfolio to meet the large withdrawals allowed as part of the Covid-19 pandemic support packages,” he said in response to EPF’s announcement yesterday.
The EPF declared a dividend rate of 5.35% for conventional savings, with a total RM45.44bil payout, as well as 4.75% for syariah savings. This amounts to RM5.7bil in payout.
In total, EPF will be paying RM51.14bil to contributors.
As for unhappiness among contributors over the dividend rates, Prof Yeah said it is not surprising for them to compare EPF returns with other pension funds as such funds are typically more conservative and earn lower but have more stable returns.
“By contrast, funds that generate higher returns entail taking higher risks. Therefore, many growth funds are earning much lower returns because of the financial market downturn in 2022 as evident by the nearly 20% decline in the Global MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) benchmark,” he pointed out.
Economist Datuk Jalilah Baba said EPF’s dividend rate still exceeded many pundits’ expectations.
“People will still receive payouts, which is a good sign. Perhaps it may not be what was expected but even I expected it to be around 4.5% to 5%.
“Based on EPF’s calculations, they can still afford to give people money, so it is good news for contributors. On the average, this is considered stable.
“If people were to compare, say with 2017 with its 6.9% dividend rate, you also have to look at the economy at the time because now the situation is totally different and filled with uncertainties.
“As such, the scenario has to adjust to the collection they have,” she said.
Meanwhile, corporate executive P. Suganya, 37, from Subang Jaya, Selangor said if EPF continued to give lower rates than previously, Malaysians might have to set aside their savings for other investment schemes as they might not have enough EPF savings for their retirement due to the volatile market.
However, she said most Malaysians could not afford to set aside part of their income for investments due to the high cost of living as well as the anticipated recession.
“This is worrying and the EPF is a fixed and reliable investment most Malaysians rely on. And the contributions are automatic and accounted for,” she said.
“EPF has to be cautious in its investments in the current volatile market since the fund cited this as a reason for the lower gross investment returns,” she added.
Facebook user T. Gopal Thirumalai commented that even though people were worried about the shrinking size of the funds in EPF, it was important to know that good fund managers would get rid of low-yielding investments, shares and assets that actually give better returns.
“When high returning funds are no longer available and your fund size keeps increasing every month, what would you do with excess funds, month after month?
“On top of that, unlike instruments with fixed dividends, when you invest in shares, you cannot predict future returns.
“A share with historical high returns can become the opposite during uncertain times.
“At that time, you decide on what to do,” he posted on the social media platform.
Oppstar is one the few Malaysian companies in the front-end of the semiconductor industry, offering a full spectrum of IC design services. The chips we design play a prominent role ushering in a new era of digitalization and are used in various industries including telecommunication, consumer electronics, industrial electronics and automotive.
Oppstar was founded in 2014 by three IC design industry experts, with the vision to become a preeminent global Semiconductor brand in R&D.
“We would like to grow by double digits for our top and bottom line. our talent is our asset and our retention strategy is to pay them a competitive market rate.” Ng Meng Thai
WHILE Malaysia is known as having a strong base in the semiconductor industry, there are not many companies that operate in the higher parts of the sector’s value chain.
That is beginning to change, as a small number of companies are making a successful business out of designing integrated circuits (ICS).
IC designers, as they are called, design chips which are then tested out and manufactured by other parties.
One such IC designer in Malaysia is Oppstar Bhd, which is slated to be listed on the ACE Market in the middle of this month.
Its upcoming listing will see it raising funds mainly for the purpose of hiring more professional engineers.
This is a departure from the norm in the country’s public listing companies’ inclination where most of the funds raised would usually be channeled towards capital expenditure initiatives such as to build factory capacity or to acquire a fixed asset.
IC designers don’t need such assets as their value is in chip designing, which in turn is done by their engineering talent.
Investing in talent would help Oppstar expand its capacity to take on more projects and boost its competitive edge.
The company says it also aims to develop intellectual property (IP) assets with these new hires. The IP is meant to lead to additional income and at the same time improve its market profile.
In its prospectus, Oppstar says some of the IPS it aims to develop are for the RISC-V (or risk-five) based system on a chip. Such a system enables artificial intelligence and machine-learning applications to run on chips.
“These are technical terms in the industry but we can license these IPS separately or incorporate the IPS into future IC design projects,” Oppstar’s chief executive officer Ng Meng Thai tells Starbizweek.
The company would also like to expand into “post-silicon validation services” which would complement its IC design business.
The move would help improve its standing among its peers, says Ng, adding that all these plans would enable it to continue on its strong growth trajectory.
“We would like to grow by double digits for our top and bottom line. Our talent is our asset and our retention strategy is to pay them a competitive market rate,” Ng says.
Oppstar aims to more than double its engineering headcount to 500 from 220 presently and this effort would take up close to half of the funds or Rm50mil raised from its initial public offering (IPO).
Ng claims that demand for the company’s expertise is strong as it wants to expand its geographic reach to India, Singapore and Taiwan with the allocation of about a quarter or Rm25mil of the IPO proceeds.
“From time to time, we receive enquiries from customers. For the next three years or so, we would still need to continue to go out to find more customers to consume our capacity of 500 staff,” he says.
Its customers comprise integrated device manufacturers, fabless and fablite companies, electronic system providers and other IC design houses.
End-industries that require such expertise are the consumer electronics, telecommunications, industrial electronics and automotive sectors.
Its financials showed a gross profit margin of close to 60% and net profit margin of 33% in the financial year 2022 (FY22).
The company says its strong margins are driven by having turnkey design service projects, which command better margins when compared to specific design services.
As at the time of its prospectus issuance, Oppstar’s order book stood at Rm34.29mil, which mainly consists of turnkey design services and is expected to be recognised in the next 12 months.
With zero borrowings, Ng says the company will be in a good position to quickly capture opportunities and have these delivered to its bottom line immediately.
Notwithstanding that, retaining its talent that grants it its competitive advantage is key to its sustenance.
“We notice that younger talent are a bit different in valuing a job from what was considered as good 10 to 20 years ago, as workers then tend to value jobs from multinational companies (MNCS).
“Younger engineers surprisingly now would like to try all the different IC designs before locking themselves down in their career,” he says.“If you go to an MNC, you would be focused on a very niche and narrow field in IC design. But since we have a broad customer base, our engineers will have the opportunities to experience a variety of design work.
“Also we have overseas customers as some 80% of our revenues are from overseas, so there are a lot of travelling opportunities for them as well,” Ng adds.
He points out that some 14% of the company’s public issue of new shares would be available for its eligible directors, employees and business associates who have contributed to its success.
“This would help us retain some of our talent for the longer term. Last year, we saw a low single-digit rate in the turnover of our manpower.
“The original team of the three founders that started the company have stayed on until now and we grew the employee count to about 220 currently,” he adds.
The company is also eyeing other growth opportunities such as through joint ventures and inorganic ones after its listing.
“At
the moment he is not trying to save the country, he is more worried of what will happen to his children in the future. Even the wealthiest
person on earth would not be able to give birth to three ‘billionaires’.
TMJ.
The US, with around 750 military bases across the globe, warships in most oceans, which is waging a proxy war, stirring up conflicts here and there, is now vehemently making a fuss about so-called "threats" it is confronting: Earlier this month, it was balloons, and now, it is TikTok.
The White House on Monday gave government agencies 30 days to ensure they do not have short-video platform TikTok on federal devices and systems, Reuters reported on the same day. In December last year, US Congress voted to bar federal employees from using the video app on government-owned devices. Now, US President Joe Biden officially tossed out the deadline.
The decision is as unreasonable as Biden's order to shoot down balloons with missiles. It is a typical irrational action generated by security anxiety stemming from a kind of mental illness, Shen Yi, an international relations expert from Fudan University, told the Global Times.
If the move reveals anything, it is that the US has gone hysterical in its anti-China stance while its relevant decisions have gone far beyond reality. TikTok has been trying to demonstrate its global nature. However, in the eyes of American elites, being born in China is an "original sin."
Over the past years, TikTok has been questioned on whether the Chinese government has access to US user data; whether its content is censored by China; whether its stored US user data is based on US soil … However, after TikTok appropriately responded and met all these requirements, the US still claims the app is a "national security threat."
In 2020, then president Donald Trump even tried to mandate that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, strike a deal to sell TikTok's US operations. In other words, the US government has been attempting to harm this globally leading short-video platform which was not born in the US, using various excuses.
The latest ban is aimed at government devices and will only affect a small portion of TikTok's users in the US, yet some observers believe that, the US is actually attempting to fan the flames of a wider call to ban the app throughout the country. On the global arena, some US allies have already followed suit. Also on Monday, Canada announced a ban on TikTok from government-issued devices. Last week, the European Commission and Council of the EU, EU's two biggest policy-making institutions, banned staff from using the app.
It is a mystery why the US and its Western allies are afraid of TikTok, when there is no evidence to prove its "danger," and when it is basically a purely entertainment platform, which people can download out of their own free will. Against the backdrop, banning TikTok is absurd. And the US is behaving like the emperor in the folktale "The Emperor's New Clothes." Don't ask why he has no clothes, he is just being unreasonable and even mentally ill, Shen said.
"How unsure of itself can the world's top superpower be to fear a young people's favorite app like that?" Mao Ning, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, asked at a daily briefing on Tuesday, when responding to the White House's TikTok ban.
It cannot be ruled out that the Biden administration needs some scores to demonstrate its capability to keep staying in the White House and protect so-called US national security, observers noted. Moreover, reports show that TikTok was the most-downloaded app worldwide. That being said, killing TikTok means US internet companies will have one less competitor.
US Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said this latest decision on TikTok is "part of the Administration's ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people's security and privacy."
US officials keep talking about "American people's security and privacy," do they mean it? As George Galloway, a six-term British parliamentarian, tweeted, "It's American intelligence, not Chinese, which is coming through your back door, your front door and all of your windows."
Worse, it was speculated that Washington's balloon frenzy earlier in February has a lot to do with covering up the scoop over what US did behind Nord Stream bombing. There is also reason to suspect the hype of TikTok is aimed at distracting people from Ohio derailment and chemical spill. Thanks to social media platforms like TikTok, short videos can be uploaded anytime and anywhere. And they helped to push the story into the public when traditional mainstream media covered their eyes. US' crumbling railway system is shocking, and US government's attempt to cover up the toxic train has been nakedly exposed to the world.
The eagerness the US government has
shown in killing Huawei by cutting off Huawei from all American supplies
of less advanced tech components is unusual and surprising. It is
completely ..
To kill everyone in Ukraine and Taiwan!! Fight against China and Russia!!! Are you an idiot for being the leader of China and Russia?
The United States issued bonds to borrow one trillion dollars from China,!! Biden used the borrowed money to fund anti-China groups!!, and encouraged them to attack China!! Can President Xi Jinping still expect peace?
Biden said our plan to destroy Taiwan is more catastrophic than destroying Ukraine!! It is to use the evil empire China+Russia as a tool in disguise!! Destroy Taiwan+Ukraine these two little allies!!
So letting the EU and Russia kill each other is also part of Biden’s plan!! No wonder the destruction of Nord Stream 2!!Ultimately killing the poor of America!!
Jesus said that God loves everyone!! Spread rumors about the so-called evil China, Russia, North Korea, and Middle East countries, and tell the poor to go to the battlefield to destroy them!! Is it in line with what Jesus said? May I ask the poor in the United States? Are you willing to go to the battlefield and die for Biden?
'US plan for destruction of Taiwan' draws public outcry
A
screenshot of a recent Taiwan media discussion on a social media post of the US president's purported claim of Washington's "plan for the
destruction of Taiwan". (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)
A recent controversy sparked by a purported “US plan for the destruction of Taiwan” has sparked growing distrust of and dissatisfaction in the United States by the island’s residents for using the island as a pawn to contain the Chinese mainland.
The remarks came in a social media bombshell dropped in Washington by Garland Nixon, a renowned American radio program host, who quoted a White House insider as saying that Biden had revealed the US plan to destroy Taiwan.
The incident also shows that Taiwan residents’ distrust of the US is growing and they are not willing to be used by US politicians
The post, on Feb 16, read that “when asked ‘if there could be any greater disaster than the neocon Ukraine project, President Biden responded, “wait until you see our plan for the destruction of Taiwan”.
The bombshell went viral on Taiwan’s social media platforms, trigging a public outcry and wrath against US politicians. Many media programs held debates on US’ intentions to exploit and sacrifice Taiwan for its hegemonic purposes, including plotting to undermine Taiwan’s chipmaking sector.
According to a media report by Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao, Zhang Wensheng, deputy dean of the Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies at Xiamen University, said that although the post’s content has not been verified, it has always been evident that the US has used Taiwan as a pawn to contain China and never cared about the safety or interests of Taiwan residents.
The incident also shows that Taiwan residents’ distrust of the US is growing and they are not willing to be used by US politicians, Zhang added.
The island’s authorities rushed to defend the US stance, but analysts from the island brushed aside their simple denial with examples of US moves against Taiwan interests in the name of “shared value”.
A representative of a Taiwan youth council said US politicians and high-ranking military personnel have been pushing to liken Taiwan to Ukraine, when they are vastly different. American politicians and military personnel hype up tension across the Taiwan Strait in order to peddle more weaponry to Taiwan and turn the island into an arms storage facility for the US, the representative said.
A Feb 24 report by Bloomberg website headlined: “US to bolster its small force on Taiwan” said that US troop numbers in Taiwan “would grow to between 100 and 200.”
If the Bloomberg report is true, the US is blatantly breaking its promise to and infringing the sovereignty of China as Washington officially acknowledges that the People’s Republic of China is the sole representative of China and Taiwan is part of China, analysts said. The US is also violating international law and contravening the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, its founding document.
Distrust grows toward Washington amid revelation of US’ ‘destruction of Taiwan’ plan
Photo taken on Jan 12, 2019 shows the White House and a stop sign in Washington D.C., the United States. Photo:Xinhua
Along with reports of enhanced interactions between the US and the island of Taiwan, the US was also reported to have been considering plans to destroy the island in the event of a military conflict between the island and the Chinese mainland. Related reports have seriously damaged the belief that the US can "defend the island," and demonstrated that the US is just using it as a pawn.
US radio talk show host Garland Nixon last week wrote on Twitter that White House insiders said that US President Joe Biden had warned about the "destruction of Taiwan," when asked if there could be any greater disaster than the Ukraine crisis.
When asked for comments on the so-called "destruction of Taiwan" plan at a press conference on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, "I also want to know what the 'destruction of Taiwan' plan is. The US should give a definitive explanation."
He noted that Taiwan is China's Taiwan and China will firmly safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Similar plans have been revealed before. In late 2022, Taiwan authorities said that they had rejected a proposal to destroy its flagship semiconductor industry in the event of a military conflict with the mainland.
The "destruction of Taiwan" must be one of the US' options, and it could even be one of the options that preparations are being made for, Zheng Jian, director of the Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies of Xiamen University, told the Global Times.
For the US, the best strategy is to deter the Chinese mainland without using a single soldier. The middle and worst policy is to destroy Taiwan, or the essence of Taiwan, such as taking away TSMC and the talents on the island, Zheng explained.
Amid reports of the US' plans for destroying and abandoning the island, Washington has also recently ramped up military support for Taiwan.
It has been reported that Taiwan authorities plan to boost military exchanges with the US, after the island's regional leader Tsai Ing-wen met with some US lawmakers recently. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the US plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to Taiwan island in the coming months, up from roughly 30 there a year ago.
Zheng noted that the US' decision to release the news just before the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict reveals its real intention, which is to closely bind the Taiwan question and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
However, the Taiwan question is fundamentally different from the Ukraine issue, as China has reiterated on many occasions. The most fundamental difference is that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and the Taiwan question is completely China's internal affair, one which brooks no external interference.
Illustration:Liu Rui/GT
The US has made the Taiwan question, which is entirely China's internal affair, a strategic point for its competition with China. However, it has no confidence in defeating China and is making multiple plans to impede China's reunification, Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of Beijing Union University, told the Global Times.
This revelation of so-called "destruction of Taiwan" plan has sparked heated discussions on the island, with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday labeling related reports as "false."
The plan and previous US media reports on "blowing up the TSMC" have frustrated Taiwan secessionists and some pro-US politicians, said Zhu.
What the US has done to other countries and regions, especially those it called "allies" in the past decades, clearly shows how fragile US promises and commitments are. The US' continuous fanning of flames in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has also turned away more people on the island of Taiwan, analysts said.
