The whole idea of the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme is to enable people to save for retirement.
These are, in effect, old-age savings and if they are lost due to speculation or the volatility of financial markets, then surely that defeats the purpose and logic of the scheme.
The government takes people's savings by force through legislation and makes it mandatory for them to invest in funds through various trustees. These trustees are not held responsible for any losses nor does the government protect people's MPF savings from a loss.
Under these circumstances, how can it justify forcing people to give their hard-earned money to a scheme which is involved in this kind of speculation?
Every employee in an MPF scheme should be given the option to keep their savings in banks if they do not want to invest in any of the nominated MPF funds. Why doesn't the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance give them this option?
There are about 2.5 million MPF members and the scheme has assets of about HK$400 billion. Given such substantial assets, I can imagine the profits the trustees and government are making. And if an investment goes wrong, they are not responsible to those whose savings are in these funds.