Lawmakers hailed on Monday an upcoming arrangement that allows employees to transfer not only their own mandatory provident fund contributions but also their employer’s to a scheme of their choice once every calendar year. Their remarks came as phase one of the MPF Full Portability scheme – which grants employees greater autonomy by allowing them to transfer accrued mandatory contributions by their employers to a scheme of their choice – is set to begin on December 21. Speaking on a RTHK radio programme, lawmaker Chau Siu-chung said he supported the arrangement as workers would be able to choose the MPF trustee they considered to be the best for them as well as foster more competition and help drive down administrative fees. He also said that the current eMPF platform would make the transfer process simpler and easier. Chau, also a non-executive director of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, noted that many workers remained unclear about what MPF “full portability” means and that public awareness in this regard needed to be strengthened. “I think public awareness right now is indeed not ideal – about 80 percent of people are basically not very clear about what full portability means, there is definitely a need to do more,” he said. Chau also called on the public to be alert to unfair sales practices. He urged the government to take this opportunity to summarise and simplify information about different trustees so that workers could have clear, easy-to-compare information to take reference from. Speaking on RTHK’s Backchat programme, lawmaker Lam Chun-sing also welcomed the arrangement but noted that employees should avoid changing their scheme frequently as it may cause high administrative costs and may affect their returns. “MPF investment is a long-term investment for retirement [so] that we want to achieve stable growth of the MPF contributions instead of short-term returns like share investment or other investment tools,” he said. “If you frequently change your scheme or transfer your MPF contribution to different trustees, this may cause high administrative costs and may affect your return.” Lam also encouraged workers who are not investment professionals or do not have time to manage their scheme to consider using the default investment strategy, saying it automatically reduces risks and uses a diversified investment approach to bring favourable returns. Edited by Tony Sabine