DPM praises Chinese community for snapping up new ASM units
By Shahrum Sayuthi, NST
The Chinese community won praise from Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for their investment acumen in snapping up all the allocated new units of the Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) in less than two days.
Muhyiddin said other races should emulate the Chinese community’s priority on investment and financial planning to ensure a better future for them and their families.
“I was made to understand that the 999 million new ASM units offered to the Chinese community had all been bought at exactly 12.17pm on April 22,” he said today at the Malaysia Unit Trust Week 2009 here.
The new ASM units which totalled 3.33 billion were offered for sale on Apr 21.
In contrast, Muhyiddin said that of the 499.5 million units reserved for the Indian community, only 111.43 million were sold as of 12pm on Friday while of the 1.665 billion units allotted to Bumiputera, only 13.93 million units had been taken up.
“I would therefore like to call on the Indian and Bumiputera communities not to let go of this good investment opportunity and grab the ASM units still available to them,” he said.
Muhyiddin also called on Malaysians to invest in the new two billion units of Amanah Saham Wawasan (ASW) 2020 which were up for grabs starting yesterday until May 6.
Of ASW 2020 units, 51 per cent is reserved for Bumiputera while the remainder is for non-Bumiputera.
Also present were Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, PNB chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid and PNB chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman.
Muhyiddin later told reporters that the strong showing by PNB in attracting investors to its unit trust schemes was a good indicator of the country’s performance in weathering current global economic uncertainties.
He said although the government encouraged domestic spending to spur the economy, it also wanted the people to invest in trustworthy schemes, such as those offered by PNB.
“By investing in such schemes, the people will get good returns and therefore will have better purchasing power which will help the economy,” he said.
Muhyiddin said the economy had shown signs of responding well to the worldwide slowdown.
“The signs are good, but we must not be overconfident and continue to press harder with efforts to improve the economy.”
He said significant positive effects from the country’s own stimulus packages would probably only be felt in the next two or three months.
Over 150,000 people visited the Malaysia Unit Trust Week 2009 here, which opened on April 18.
