MoneyTree to share products in Sarawak

KUCHING: Financial literacy training provider MoneyTree is set to make its presence felt in Sarawak through its agent MoneyTree Borneo Sdn Bhd.

MONEYTREE GROWS: MoneyTree Borneo director Dr Edward Lim (centre) shows a brochure to Wong as Reyes looks on.

MoneyTree Asia Pacific Ltd CEO Michael Reyes said MoneyTree Borneo already has a master licence to distribute and promote its products not only in Sarawak, but also in Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan Barat.

The group has appointed See Hua Group of newspapers as its official paper and will use The Borneo Post, particularly its business articles, extensively in its programmes in the state.

Reyes said MoneyTree has products for all ages with the Basic programme for those aged between six and eight, Junior programme for those nine to 12, Apprentice programme for 13- to 17-year-olds and Entrepreneur programme for tertiary students aged 18 to 27.

He explained that MoneyTree uses mock credit cards, currency and stock markets in classrooms.

“It’s a play session rather than classroom session. Children will be given ‘jobs’ and ‘salaries’. The programme is aimed at creating an economic system in the classroom and it is as similar as possible to the actual one. This is to expose them to the concept of money management and also to teach them how to be financially sound in the future,” he said during a recent courtesy call on The Borneo Post, Utusan Borneo, thesundaypost and See Hua Daily News operations manager Phyllis Wong.

He pointed out that the present formal education system does not teach financial literacy even though some tertiary institutions have realised how important it is for the younger generation.

The MoneyTree programme requires trainees to provide correct answers to questions for rewards of mock money, which can be exchanged for actual items.

“At the end of each programme, they can use the mock money to ‘auction’ for real things. The real items are sponsored by other people or MoneyTree,” he said.

All MoneyTree programmes are certified by Open University Malaysia. Its associates are Maybank and Certified Practising Accountants (CPA).

During classes, one of the ‘jobs’ available is ‘reporting’ and the job of the ‘reporter’ is to identify activities in newspapers that will affect the real economy or the world.

“This is where the See Hua Group newspapers will come in. The ‘reporter’ can only use the newspapers belonging to the See Hua Group. Our aim is also to groom the next generation of readers of its stable of newspapers,” Reyes said.

See Hua Group encompasses The Borneo Post, Utusan Borneo, See Hua Daily News, thesundaypost, Oriental Daily and Borneo Post Online (www.theborneopost.com).

The MoneyTree programme also aims to help university students to be business-minded or encourage them to become entrepreneurs, said Reyes, adding that the course for tertiary students can run for four to six months.

“In Sarawak MoneyTree plans to give the first option to Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) to adopt the programme as part of their syllabus. We have not associated ourselves with Unimas yet, but in Peninsular Malaysia we already have ties with 21 universities,” he said.

He said MoneyTree is also in discussions with Swinburne University and Curtin University.

“MoneyTree programme is a success in Peninsular Malaysia with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) our strongest support. Every intake would see new teams in our programme. Some of these tertiary institutions have adopted our programme as their capstone syllabus,” Reyes said.

On another note, he said MoneyTree Asia Pacific will be looking for sub-licensees in major towns throughout Borneo to run academies. He said they may open new MoneyTree outlets or just convert existing businesses.

“MoneyTree Borneo started in March 2010. As far as Sarawak is concerned, it is a new company and its products can also be treated as brand new,” Reyes said.

MoneyTree Asia Pacific also has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kota Kinabalu.

“We are in the midst of setting up an office in Jakarta. Soon we will also be having an office in Kalimantan Barat. We are indeed looking for sub-licensees in major towns in Kalimantan Barat,” he said.

He assured parents in all regions should not be worried about product quality as MoneyTree is similar in all towns.

“We cannot deviate from the programme and our objectives,” he said.

MoneyTree Borneo can be reached on 082-464639, 082-454639 or via www.moneytree.my.

Its postal address is No. 127E, 2nd Floor, Lot 14, Green Heights Commercial Centre, Jalan Lapangan Terbang, 93250 Kuching, Sarawak.

The Borneo Post will publish a MoneyTree weekly column ‘How to be financially literate’ starting next Wednesday.