Empowering investors through InvestSmart

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Khairul (centre) displays the InvestSmart mobile app together with (from left) SC senior manager of investment affairs and complaints Rohaimi Mohamad, SC senior executives of investment affairs and complaints Firdaus Ahmad Tajuddin and Illa Ainaa Afifuddin as well as Sidrec graduate management executive Kanimoli Balakrishnan.

SIBU: InvestSmart, a comprehensive investment awareness and literacy campaign, is reaching out to people to empower them with the fundamentals of making sound investment decisions.

According to Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) deputy general manager and head of investor affairs and complaints Khairul Ridzwan Abdul Kuddus, InvestSmart is SC’s investor empowerment initiative.

“The demographic in Sibu is a good blend of higher income and lower-to-middle income groups. In terms of population, it is the third largest district in Sarawak.

“I think Sibu is a good opportunity for us to reach out to all segments of people in one place.

“This is our first event that we are doing in Sibu under InvestSmart’s banner,” Khairul said yesterday after the official opening of the 16th Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia (MSAM) 2015 here yesterday.

He pointed out that protection of investors was among their key responsibilities, adding that the best way to go about this was through education.

“We have found that you can create rules and supervise the company that carries out the investment activities but still self-protection is one of the best ways to protect yourself.

“InvestSmart is one of the ways we empower investors by educating them,” he said, adding that it was launched last June.

SC, he said, had always been involved with investors’ education but under InvestSmart, they wanted to make it more attractive to the public while still being easy to understand.

People were daunted by investment because they thought it was very complicated, he noted.

According to him, the InvestSmart approach is guided by three main principles, namely comprehensiveness, simplicity and multiple modalities.

Comprehensiveness, he explained, meant targeting all segments of the Malaysian investing population to educate them with the fundamentals of making sound investment decisions.

“Simplicity means to demystify investing by using plain language and employing impactful methods.

“Multiple modalities are carried out through multiple channels, both traditional and new media, as well as face-to-face engagements.”

Stating that it was never too late for the people of Sibu to consider investing, especially in capital market, he said there were a variety of products that involved very basic to more sophisticated ones.