Geoffrey Williams, of the Malaysian University of Science and Technology (MUST), said those who opt to work longer to save money for their retirement might not be able to achieve their target, as their efforts add “virtually nothing” to their retirement income.
A UBP programme, he said, would be able to provide a “basic and liveable” income for the older cohort of the Malaysian society who are either working or unemployed.
Speaking at the International Conference on Social Wellbeing 2021 organised by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today, Williams said a modest implementation of the programme can cost as little as 0.7% of government spending.
“A radical solution to fund UBP would be pooling the existing government pension funds worth RM1.2 trillion and investing them.
“A 5% return would yield RM60 billion, which could cover a living wage pension for 70% of retirees,” he said.
He said the scheme could be successfully implemented in the country as long as it is open, transparent and efficient, and the highest standard of governance is applied into the system.
EPF recently said that some 6.1 million contributors are now left with savings of less than RM10,000 for their retirement.
At the same conference, businessman Anas Zubedy suggested that the government implement a targeted and specific affirmative action for downtrodden communities regardless of their race.
“While the affirmative action for Bumiputeras must continue, there needs to be provisions for the whole process ‘from homes to schools to jobs’ so that we can reduce poverty among the non-Malays and Orang Asli communities in one generation, and move them to the middle class via education and support, just like what we did for the Bumiputeras under the New Economic Policy (NEP),” he said.
He also cautioned against the “loose application of meritocracy and equality”, which favours the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and weak, and urged the government to look into planned or unplanned bias in hiring and promotion practices in the private sector.