The recently concluded “Rethink Retail” forum that was conducted by Bursa Malaysia successfully brought together some of the nation’s key financial players, and highlighted several important statistics that need to be rectified in order to make the younger generation consider the stock market industry more seriously in the future.
Bursa Malaysia’s immediate attention lies in re-creating its image to cater for the future of the Malaysian stock market, which means for those below 25 years old (which encompasses 67% of the Malaysian population). Statistics clearly show that if the youth market is to be successfully tapped, the only way of doing it is through the Internet.
The growth of Internet trading has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, and now stands at an impressive 19%.
Considering that most young people are constantly on the internet, Bursa Malaysia has to personalize its marketing strategy so that it would appeal to the youth of today, something that Omnicom Media Group Malaysia managing director Andreas Vogiatzakis agrees on. He insisted that educating youth with the true reality of the stock market is crucial to attract youngsters to invest in the stock market.
President of the Association of Stockbroking Companies Malaysia Ahmad Azman was of the view that dealers and remisiers within the stock market industry should be licensed accordingly based on a tierd system that should be fair and hassle-free.
Stuart Sayers, ETrade Australia’s managing director said that the brokers should be targeted first to generate demand for the stock market, and Bursa Malaysia has to think of ways to make these brokers work more efficiently so that they offer more convenience to potential customers. According to him, keeping it simple is also crucial in addition to understanding what the customer really seeks for.
Rethink Retail is a positive step forward in terms of opinion-exchange and brainstorming discussions, now the challenge is to implement all the facts that were discussed during the forum to attract more young people to invest in the stock market!
Tags: Bursa Malaysia, internet trading, Retail