With zero savings, majority of Malaysians face dire straits in emergencies

With zero savings, majority of Malaysians face dire straits in emergencies



BY ANISAH SHUKRY
  Published: 26 November 2014

The majority of Malaysians will likely struggle in the event of income emergencies as they have no financial assets and no banking or financial account of any kind, the Malaysia Human Development Report 2013 revealed.

More than half or 53% of Malaysian households have no financial assets, while one in three Malaysians do not have an account, the report commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said.

Rural households have the highest number of those without any financial assets (63%), compared to 45% of urban households, and by ethnic group, Bumiputera and Malays chalked up the highest figures as those without such assets.

“Among ethnic groups, about 57% of non-Malay Bumiputera and 55% of Malays have no financial assets, with the figure for the Chinese and Indians at 45% and 44% respectively,” read the report which was released in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. 

“In other words, roughly one out of two Malays, non-Malay Bumiputera, Chinese and Indians have no immediate liquid financial assets, making them vulnerable in the event of an income or employment shock.” 

One in three Malaysians also had no banking or financial account, while among the bottom 40%, the figure was much higher, at 50%, said the report. “In other words, one out of two low-income Malaysians do not have any financial accounts.

Access to formal credit (or lack thereof) may also be the reason for the absence of financial assets,” it said.

The report stated that while Malaysia recorded a relatively high gross national savings rate, the bulk of the savings came from the corporate sector.

Citing figures from the Household Income Survey (HIS), the report also noted that nearly 90% and 86% of the rural and urban households, respectively, had no savings, while the majority of households at 88% had zero earnings from their savings.

Meanwhile, 57% of Malaysian households reported zero earnings from investments, with the figure for urban households at 50% and rural households at 66%, according to figures derived from dividend income earned.

The report did not take into account forced savings, such as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), as households do not have access to such savings in the event of immediate income or employment shock.

But a breakdown of data from EPF savings as at 2013 showed equally worrying information: 90% of Malaysians nearing retirement age did not have enough funds to sustain a basic lifestyle for more than five years. 

“Data from EPF shows that as at end of 2013, about one-fifth of Malaysians who are nearing retirement age (between the ages of 51 and 55) have less than RM20,000 in savings, while nearly 70% of those at the age of 54 have savings less than RM50,000. 

“In other words, assuming a monthly expenditure of RM900 per month, the savings of the former could sustain their basic lifestyle for 1.8 years, while for the latter, the figure stands at 4.6 years.” 

Though alarming, neither the low amount of financial assets or EPF savings were surprising, the report noted.

It also explained that the low EPF savings were due to the fact that the majority of Malaysians earned low wages.

  “The monthly wage distribution from EPF shows that in 2013, one-third, or 2.1 million, active members earn less than RM1,000, slightly more than three-quarters (76.8%) earn less than RM3,000, and about 90% earn less than RM5,000 a month. 

“As expected, the inequality in compulsory savings is rather extreme, where the top 1.7% of depositors in EPF has more savings than the savings of the entire bottom 57% combined,” added the report.

The authors said that the lack of financial assets, especially for the bottom 40%, severely limited their ability to borrow, invest, save and improve their economic opportunities.

The report was written by Tan Sri Datuk Dr Kamal Salih, an adjunct professor of Economics and Development Studies at Universiti Malaya (UM); Dr Lee Hwok Aun, from the UM Department of Development Studies, and Dr Muhammad Khalid of the Khazanah Research Institute.

The report was published for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and was sponsored by both the UNDP and the Economic Planning Unit which is under the Prime Minister's Department.
– November 26, 2014.
 

Top 9 popular goods Alibaba's buyers purchase overseas

Top 9 popular goods Alibaba's buyers purchase overseas

China Daily/Asia News Network

Monday, Nov 17, 2014

 

 

 

As the annual online shopping festival "Double 11", an equivalent of "Cyber Monday", lowered the curtain, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant impressed the world with a legendary one-day sales figure - 57.1 billion yuan (S$12.8 billion) on Nov 11,2014, generated by its Tmall.com, Taobao.com and its overseas outlets combined.

"Globalization" is one of Alibaba's main strategies for this year's Double 11 online shopping festival and was the group's first shopping event that covered shoppers on a global scale.

By expanding globally with the participation of AliExpress and Tmall Global, customers from 217 countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland joined the shopping spree, with China's Hong Kong region, the United States and Russia claiming the top three overseas buyer areas.

Chinese shoppers have also been purchasing goods overseas with good value and quality. As females were the main force in the shopping spree, skin-care products and maternal and children's articles were on the list of the most popular goods for Chinese buyers who shopped overseas via online services.

1) Smart phone
Tmall sold 1,894,867 mobile phones on Double 11 and became the online platform that sold the most handsets in 24 hours.

2) Infant formulaAs a hot online commodity, infant formula had strong sales momentum during the shopping festival. A domestic brand, 'Junlebao', topped Tmall's sales in this category with a total revenue of 28.3 million yuan in one day.

3) HandbagsHandbags and purses were again the female buyers' favourite commodities.

4) DressesClothing sales at Tmall on Double 11 accounted for 35.5 per cent of the total sales on the PC platform and 21.1 per cent on the mobile platform.

5) Facial masksSkincare and cosmetics were among the hot commodities that female buyers purchased and facial masks topped sales of the category.

6) Facial creamFollowing facial masks, facial cream was the second favourite skin care product that was purchased during the shopping festival.

7) Skin care setOften seen during holiday seasons, skin care sets attract women and often have good sales since they are usually of a good value and cheaper than buying single items. On Double 11 this year, Tmall did the trick again and won female buyers' hearts by offering skin care sets.

8) Watches
Watches have topped the list of overseas buyers' favorites and had a good win during this year's online shopping festival.

9) Disposable diapersMaternal and children's articles have always been popular items online and along with infant formula this year, disposable diapers attracted parents' interests and made record sales.

Photo Gallery: 

Step-by-step guide: How to shop on Taobao without a Chinese ID

 

Click on thumbnail to view photos.

 

Source:  China Daily/Asia News Network

 

View more

- See more at: http://digital.asiaone.com/digital/news/top-9-popular-goods-alibabas-buyers-purchase-overseas#sthash.7Qt93zWI.dpuf

DIY man who built an empire

DIY man who built an empire



Natasha Ann Zachariah
The Straits Times
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2014

Low Cheong Kee set up his first Home-Fix shop in 1993 and now has 23 stores and counting. 

The rise of home-grown hardware store Home-Fix mirrors the evolution of the Singapore home from simple kampung dwellings to modern houses and high-rise apartments.

Before Home-Fix founder Low Cheong Kee was born, his grandfather opened Chop Tian Seng in Geylang Road, selling charcoal and chopped firewood in the early 1960s.

Later, in the 1970s, his parents saw how Singaporeans were moving out of kampungs and into HDB flats, and realised that paint, plumbing items and tools were in demand, while charcoal and firewood were going out of fashion.

They added these items to the inventory for sale. They also moved the store across the road to Geylang Serai Market after the original shop closed and renamed it Tian Seng Hardware And Paints Enterprise.

Two decades later, as homeowners flocked to malls to shop in air- conditioned comfort, Mr Low set up the first Home-Fix DIY store in Siglap Centre in 1993.

He stocked up on the latest power tools and gadgets, and created new sections for gardening and home appliances over the years.

Today, he owns 23 Home-Fix stores in Singapore, including the newest one, Elements by Home-Fix at Marina Square, which has new and exclusive brands ranging from cookware to tools to home accents, as well as a Do-It-For-You department, where customers can talk to specialised product experts about home improvement needs.

Overseas, there are nine stores in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and he opened the brand's first franchised store in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in August.

 He will open another in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, later this month.

Adopt, adapt and improve seems to be Mr Low's mantra.

He learnt to be versatile from his grandfather and parents, who he says never set out to create a hardware store empire.

The 50-year-old managing director says: "They were simple, honest folks who were trying to make a living. But they had to adapt and transform. If they didn't, they would die. "One of the good things was that they were open to new ideas. When I took over the business and told them that they had to change the way they worked, they were alright with it."

Walk into any Home-Fix store here and you are likely to find it a fuss-free shopping trip, with helpful staff and a well-planned store layout - a far cry from his experience working at his parents' shop.

 He was not expected to work full-time there but he helped out during busy periods such as the days leading up to Hari Raya, when the store would see "really good business".

But his parents ran the mom-and-pop store with a system they created themselves, which made it hard for him to understand how they kept track of prices and their stock of hardware items.

 "They placed things wherever they wanted and didn't do stock taking.

They inherited a complex coding system from my grandfather, which was confusing, and prices were never consistent.

"And they kept everything in their heads. They charged different people different prices and they would have to remember how much they charged each person so that it would be the same price when they returned."

Even as the eldest son - he has a sister who is six years younger than him and a brother who is three years younger - he was not expected to take over the family business, though his parents asked him to consider coming on board as they were getting on in years.

Business was good, good enough for the family to live in a three-room flat in Geylang Serai.

In the late 1980s, his parents moved to Galaxy Towers condominium in Onan Road.

After an unremarkable few months as an operations executive for a chalet operator after national service in the late 1980s, he decided to join his parents at the shop, which was at Block 1 in Geylang Serai.

He also started a small handyman business with his uncle, as customers were requesting help with their painting and plumbing needs.

"My whole life centred on that L-shaped block, where our shop was. I didn't want to grow up, live and work in the same area all through my life. That thought scared me. Doing the business with my uncle allowed me to get out of the neighbourhood for a while."

At the same time, he was trying to change the way his parents ran the business.

He hunted down individual items which were placed all over the shop, packed them all together and changed the way the merchandise was displayed.

 "The changing process was a long and tedious one. Every day, I would take on a different area and rework everything from visual merchandising to store design. I had to classify all the items from the cutting tools to the paint so that customers could see them in a logical, presentable way."

He eventually settled into the business, though the crammed 800sq ft ground floor space annoyed him.

There was also another 800sq ft of storage on the first floor and the routine of opening at 8am and dragging in the shelves at 6pm to close up for the day got to him.

Mr Low, who did his A levels at Siglap Secondary School, says: "I was very settled at the shop and things became routine. I hated pulling things in and out of the shop because I would often get hurt by the sharp edges of the shelves."

In 1992, while reading The Straits Times, he chanced upon an advertisement announcing the opening of Siglap Centre.

He thought the area was a nice neighbourhood for expanding the business, as many houses were being built there.

His parents, while supportive, were unsure of how well he would do. Mr Low, who snagged a prime location with a shop space on the ground floor at the main entrance, says: "I had to pay more than $4,000 rent for a 600sq ft unit. It was more than triple the price they were paying for their Geylang Serai unit. "To them, it was very expensive. But they were supportive of what I wanted to do. I felt bad about leaving them to run the shop by themselves."

His parents continued running the Geylang business before retiring in 2002.

His father died about five years ago, while his 69-year-old mother still lives in the same condominium.

It was a steep learning curve at the Siglap Centre shop, which he named Home-Fix - a simple name, which he put down to a "lack of imagination".

The store sold hardware products and tools for people to fix up their own homes.

He started as a one-man show, working 12-hour days from 10am.

He also opened the shop every day and had to beg his brother to take over operations when he went on a belated honeymoon with his wife, Erica Ong, 49, whom he married in 1991.

The couple, who have no children, live in a 1,700 sq ft condominium apartment in Siglap.

The do-it-yourself culture in Singapore was at its infancy when he got Home-Fix started and customers often asked him what DIY meant.

They would also ask for discounts, even though the items had price tags, and he would give in.

 In the first two years, he says business was slow, so he focused on creating a loyal customer base, and finding out what they needed.

With landed properties in Siglap, he realised that homeowners needed gardening tools as well, so he created a section for that.

The same business acumen applied to future stores, and he would curate the offerings based on store locations.

For example, he stocked up on indoor plants in outlets nearer flats.

To attract more women customers, he held a Ladies' Nite at the company's flagship store in Marina Square in 2010, where staff did special product demonstrations and offered promotions.

He also made good friends among the shopkeepers at Siglap Centre, and the owner of the game shop above him told him he was expanding to Tanglin Mall in Orchard, which enticed Mr Low.

His brother, Cheong Yew, quit his job in the insurance industry to join him, and together, they expanded Home-Fix into its second outlet.

After manning the store while his brother was away, Mr Low Cheong Yew became hooked on the business.

So when asked to come on board Home-Fix, he was game. "And we've never looked back," says Mr Low, 47, who says working with his brother is a great partnership.

Their sister runs hardware shop DIY Essentials in Sembawang Drive, though the businesses are not related.

"We don't work for each other. Instead, we make up for each other's shortcomings. He

 a great public relations person, who's good with meeting people and talking to them.

I'm better with the details such as accounting. We complement each other."

Six months after they got into the groove of their Tanglin operations, a juicy opportunity, too good to pass up, came their way.

Former Ikea Singapore managing director Sten Lunden invited the brothers to set up shop at the Swedish furniture giant's Alexandra outlet.

He had seen their store in Tanglin Mall and liked the concept, and wanted them to open a shop, along with other businesses such as a florist and magazine store.

Mr Low says: "We had just opened our second outlet at that time, but we decided to go for it. Young Singaporeans were setting up their homes and were heading to Ikea.

We were in the right place. It was our best store at that time, and finally, we didn't need to explain what DIY is. "The Ikea store transformed our business."

He credits part of the success to hiring a branding consultant and learning how to market his stores. It sparked off a steady - and profitable - expansion.

As Home-Fix celebrated its 20th year last year, it took in about $40 million from its Singapore and Malaysian operations.

Now, its headquarters, regional logistics and training hub, and product development facility are in a 124,000 sq ft, seven-storey building in Tai Seng.

Listening to market needs, he converted two floors of Home-Fix's headquarters into Home-Fix XPC, a workshop and co-working space with specialised equipment for hobbyists, makers and professionals.

There is a prototyping lab, an electronics room which has power tools and a workshop area.

He has had to close down some stores, including one in Jakarta, Indonesia, last year.

With high rental costs and man- power issues a perennial problem, he says matter-of-factly: "If we can't achieve a sales target, we have to close. Relationship with tenants and landlords is of a different dimension now. In the early days, it was more personal, but being personal doesn't pay the rent. "Money speaks a lot."

The company has 240 employees in Singapore.

He constantly encourages them to upgrade their skills and new hires are put through a three- to six-year training programme.

The company also has a huge focus on corporate social responsibility.

Mr Low's wife, Ms Ong, is the corporate social responsibility manager at Home-Fix.

Some programmes they have worked on include renovating homes of needy families for Hari Raya Puasa and opening up Elements by Home-Fix at Marina Square to students of NorthLight School so they can get hands-on retail experience.

At Spectra and Crest secondary schools, Home-Fix has set up learning laboratories where students get a simulated retail experience.

Retail consultant Philip Wee, 68, says the spirit of giving back has always been ingrained in Mr Low, "way before it became a buzzword".

They met when Mr Wee was the general manager at Ikea's Alexandra Road store, and the two have been friends since.

Mr Wee says: "If Ikea was doing something for the community in the Bukit Merah area and asked him to sponsor something, there would be no hesitation. Giving was something which was quite natural to him."

With 23 stores and counting, it looks like Mr Low is on his way to setting up 30 - the number of stores he wanted to open when he first opened the store in Siglap.

And it looks there is no stopping him.

He already has plans for the direction of Home-Fix, to cater to homeowners in the future.

The avid golfer and traveller says: "I want Home-Fix to be more than just a DIY store. It should move towards selling more aspirational things such as wellness and lifestyle products which will better people's homes, such as air purifiers and anti-dust mite pillows, not just tools for fixing things. We have to move up the value chain."
 

Alibaba Singles' Day sales break past $10 billion

Alibaba Singles' Day sales break past $10 billion



HANGZHOU, China - E-commerce giant Alibaba's Singles' Day sales broke through the US$8 billion (S$10.34 billion) mark late on Tuesday, illustrating the buying power of the Chinese consumer and the importance of the event in the retail calendar.

The live sales figure on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's giant screen at its sprawling Hangzhou campus surged past 2013's record high to the 50 billion yuan (US$8.16 billion) mark with almost three hours left on the clock as Chinese and overseas shoppers bought heavily discounted online goods.

The recent US listing, just eight weeks ago, seemed though to quieten company leaders.

Jack Ma, the normally chatty executive chairman, shied away from the main media events, limiting himself to an interview with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

The shopping day, similar to Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the US, comes less than eight weeks after its public share listing in New York, which set its own US$25 billion record.

Alibaba turned the Singles' Day celebration, a Nov. 11 Chinese response to romantic holidays like Valentine's Day, into an online shopping festival in 2009. It copyrighted the "Double 11" term three years later after recognising its commercial potential.

"You're seeing the unleashing of the consumption power of the Chinese consumer," Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group's executive vice chairman, told reporters.

"We really are witnessing history here because we are seeing the shift of the economy from focused on the state sector to consumption." Alibaba did 35 billion yuan in business during last year's festival, and Tech research firm IDC predicts this year's total gross merchandise volume (GMV) will reach US$8.62 billion. 

BOOSTING THE NUMBERS
Less than 18 minutes into this year's "11.11 Shopping Festival", GMV had already hit US$1 billion. 

The numbers are boosted by Alibaba's "pre-sales initiative".

Merchants advertised Singles' Day prices as early as Oct. 15, taking deposits for the items but only processing full payments and shipping the goods on Singles' Day itself.

Though the 27,000 vendors that take part can boost their sales and gain customers by being featured on Alibaba's Singles'Day shopping sites, some have complained that discounts and cut-throat corporate rivalry undercut the benefits.

Analysts also said Alibaba's GMV will be driven by order cancellations during Singles' Day being delayed until Wednesday on Tmall.com, its online retail site.

"Tmall will not let you cancel Singles' Day orders until the following day, because they want to be able to talk about the GMV number and the enormous target," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

POLE POSITION
While rivals such as JD.com Inc, Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd and Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Yihaodian have all gotten in on the Singles' Day act, Tsai was bullish about Alibaba's pole position.

"I don't think any other company in China can create a day like this," he said.

Chinese online retailer JD.com said on its official Twitter account that orders in the first 16 hours of Singles' Day had more than doubled compared with last year.

China's Xiaomi Technology Co Ltd, the world's third-largest smartphone maker, which also uses the Singles' Day festival to boost turnover, said on its official Weibo account its sales had so far surpassed 1.4 billion yuan, and as of Tuesday evening it had sold more than 1 million handsets.

The "11.11 Shopping Festival", which Alibaba says is the world's biggest 24-hour online sale, began with just 27 merchants in 2009 offering deep discounts on the company's Tmall site to boost sales during an otherwise slack period.

This year's festival is global, reaching shoppers in more than 200 countries, the company said.
 ----- Reuters    12 November 2014

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6 top things that Singaporeans do when using their smartphones

6 top things that Singaporeans do when using their smartphones



SINGAPORE - Singapore has once again topped the world, and this time it is in smartphone adoption and usage. The country's smartphone adoption rate stands at 85 per cent on the recently-released Google Consumer Barometer.

It is ahead of countries such as South Korea (80 per cent) and Sweden (75 per cent).

According to the research, these are the top six activities that Singaporeans engage in using their smartphone:

1. Use search engines (77 per cent)
That's only because a search engine is usually the default home page for people's mobile Internet browser. Apart from that, Singaporeans also use search engines to check food reviews to find out what they should have at a restaurant - when the waiter arrives to take their order.

2. Check e-mail (76 per cent)
People frequently check their e-mail on their phone even when they are not in the office, as they are expected to reply to e-mail immediately. Setting an out-of-office e-mail notification does not stop their bosses from contacting them after office hours.

3. Visit social networks (69 per cent)
Singaporeans aren't being anti-social when they tap away at their phones while in a group outing. No, they are actually being extra-social by reaching out to friends and family outside of the group they are currently engaged in.

4. Take photos/videos (66 per cent)
It's a three-way split between selfies, pictures of food, and cat videos.

5. Watch online videos (55 per cent)
Singaporeans love their online videos, and 35 per cent of those who watch videos on their smartphone do so while walking at a snail's pace along narrow, crowded corridors.

6. Look for product information (49 per cent)
Many do this while shopping at a retail store - to see if they can get the same product cheaper online, or whether there's a seller on digital marketplace Carousell.

Source: Google Consumer Barometer Website

The Straits Times (Singapore)    6 November 2014