KUALA LUMPUR (April 7): The Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP) said that it is still on track to achieve the target of a RM200 billion gross fund size by 2025, despite expectations of various challenges in 2023. 

Its chief executive officer Nik Amlizan Mohamed said that currently, KWAP’s gross fund size amounts to more than RM175 billion, including the withdrawal from the government. 

Nik Amlizan told reporters this during a visit by Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan to the retirement fund here on Friday (April 7). 

Chief investment officer Hazman Hilmi Sallahuddin, meanwhile, said KWAP will remain aggressive in its investment deployment this year. 

"Generally, the market has been very tough this year. We were quite positive about the opening of China, and then suddenly the banking crisis emerged. 

"So, we foresee it's going to be a challenging year, but having said that, we are optimistic about the second half of this year," he said, adding that this will not affect KWAP's 2023 investment strategy.

"We wish the market will improve. We were quite aggressive in terms of investment last year, and we foresee the same this year," he noted. 

Meanwhile, Ahmad Maslan said KWAP will heighten its preparedness programmes under the MyPesara initiatives. 

Currently, there are 770,000 recipients under KWAP, with 73% pensioners and 27% being beneficiaries who receive a derivative pension.

KWAP has lined up 17 physical outreach MyPesara programmes this year to reach out to current and future recipients to raise awareness of financial and healthcare planning.

Ahmad Maslan, on another matter, said scam cases among pensioners are growing, and there is a need to address this accordingly.

In 2022, KWAP managed 26,000 pensioners and derivative recipients via its outreach programmes. It targets to reach out to about 50,000 participants this year.