Malaysia’s Sarawak state may set up its own civil service pension fund, according to a Borneo Post report, citing Johari Openg, chief minister of the East Malaysian state.
The state government is “currently studying the viability of setting up such a fund or to collaborate with the Employees Provident Fund [EPF]”, Johari is quoted as saying in the report published on October 26.
The EPF, Malaysia’s largest pension fund, manages the retirement savings of private sector employees and the self-employed.
Malaysia’s civil service pension fund, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), does not cover civil servants in Sarawak. KWAP members are employees of the federal government, federal and state statutory bodies, local authorities and agencies.
Johari has a track record of seeking long-term options to make the state government more efficient.
Earlier this month, he said he was considering forming an entity to hold government assets, and which would be run like a business, functioning as the state’s asset management and investment arm.
In January, Sarawak launched its own sovereign wealth fund, aimed at investing the resource-rich state’s surplus capital reserves in order to maximise returns.