Now you can change service provider and retain existing mobile phone number

The Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service has been talked about in Malaysia since 2005, and finally it is materialized by today!

With the MNP in place, mobile phone users, be it prepaid or postpaid, and regardless consumer plan or corporate plan, can now port from one mobile service provider to another, for example from Maxis to Digi, or Digi to Celcom, or Celcom to Maxis, and so on... but retaining the same mobile phone number as before, including the prefix number.

This is a good news to all of us, because with this MNP service, we can freely change to the mobile service provider that provides the best service, the best price, and/or the most features & benefits, without worrying about the change in mobile phone number anymore. Our relatives , friends, colleagues, customers, ... can still use the same mobile number to contact us, and the same number being used for banking services, online services, etc. can still be used.

Prepaid consumer plan users in Klang Valley can start porting from today (29 August 2008) onwards, while postpaid consumer plan users in Klang Valley can start enjoying the MNP service from 15 September 2008 onwards. A Nationwide Launch to cover the whole country and including business plan users as well, is planned to commence in October 2008.

To perform the porting, you need to apply with the new service provider, a maximum service fee of RM25 will be charged, and your service with existing service provider will be automatically terminated upon successful porting. All supplementary lines must port together with the principal account. Supplementary line that doesn't intend to port to new service provider must detach and register as primary line with the old service provider.

During the porting process, you can still enjoy the same mobile services as before. Only the International Roaming Service will be affected as this service will be suspended upon your porting request.

Click here for the FAQ document about the MNP service.

FundSuperMart present in Malaysia

Good news to unit trust investors in Malaysia. FundSuperMart, the renoun and largest online unit trust distributor in Singapore has now come to the country.

The FundSuperMart in Malaysia is operated by iFAST-OSK Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Malaysia’s OSK Investment Bank Bhd and Singapore's iFAST Corp. Investors are able to perform online unit trusts buy/sell transaction, as well as make use of their online tools to check portfolio and calculate return. There are also research articles and fund selection tools to help you select for suitable funds based on your investment strategy.

One of the attraction of FundSuperMart is that it has a comparatively low fund sales charges of 2% only. Currently, unit trusts of the following fund managers are available:

• Alliance Investment Management Bhd
• AmInvestment Services Berhad
• OSK-UOB Unit Trust Management Berhad
• Pheim Unit Trusts Bhd
• Prudential Fund Management Berhad
• RHB Investment Management Sdn Bhd
  

Meanwhile Tune Money, the online financial service portal of Dato' Tony Fernandes is also planned to sell unit trusts on their portal soon.

The mooncake economy

Mooncake (月饼) is a very special product. This round shape Chinese pastry only appears during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节), which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of every lunar year. It will appear in the market about 2 months before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and will disappear after that.

When the time arrives, you will see its advertisement and promotion all over the media, be it radio, television, newspaper, magazine, flyers, ... Special booths will be setup in shopping complex to sell this product. The market is dominated by restaurants and baker houses, with involvement of some other smaller players. Brand names such as Oversea Restaurant (海外天), Kam Lun Tai Restaurant (锦伦泰 ), Jade Pot Tea House (玉壶轩), Tong Kee Brothers Confectionery (棠记兄弟), The Baker’s Cottage (麦可思 ), Hei Yue Tong (喜月堂), Lavender (紫馨), Foh San Restaurant (富山), Six Happiness Restaurant (六福), Tai Thong Restaurant (大同)... are easily tied up with mooncake. Nowadays even Purple Cane (紫藤), Lo Hong Ka (老行家), Baskin Robbins, Haagen Dazs also joint in the mooncake market warfare, and yet to mention those high-class restaurant in hotels such as Shangri-La, Equatorial, Ritz-Calton, Concorde, Hilton, Dynasty, Park Royal, Renaissance, etc.

Mooncake has a very short shelf life and need to be consumed within 1-2 weeks. Frankly speaking, it is not a healthy food as well, as it comes with high sugar, high cholesterol and high calorie. You might wonder why there are so many players so keen in this festive product? It is simply because the profit margin is very high. They can easily make at least 400% profit by selling mooncake within that 1 month period, which the net profit figure is probably equivalent to their one year normal restaurant business.

Mooncake is expensive. The normal one can easily cost above RM10 per cake. Its price is determined by factors such as taste, ingredient, packaging, and brand name. Normally the Chinese people buy mooncake as gift to friends, co-workers, relatives, neighbours, business partners during this Mid-Autumn Festival, more than buying for own consumption. The product has been so closely related to the season until nowadays Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as Mooncake Festival too.

The mooncake economy is an interesting business model which shows high risk (short period, short shelf life), high return (more than 400% profit). Perhaps for the businessmen, this product is even better than the Chinese mandarin sold during Chinese New Year.