KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd announced Tuesday it has recorded a better profit from operations in 2022, mainly contributed from monetization activities and lower impairment in the portfolio.

The fund said in a statement that its profit from operations rose to 1.6 billion ringgit (357.34 million U.S. dollars) in 2022 from 670 million ringgit in 2021.

The group's net asset value (NAV), however, saw a decline of 5 percent from 86 billion ringgit in 2021 to 81 billion ringgit in 2022, which can be attributed to the global market downtrend.

Meanwhile, Khazanah declared a dividend of 500 million ringgit for 2022 to the government of Malaysia, with cumulative dividends declared since 2004 amounting to 17.1 billion ringgit.

"Despite the challenging market conditions globally, we delivered a satisfactory performance in the first full year of implementing our refreshed strategy. Our nation building mandate of delivering long-term sustainable value remains unchanged, and we will ride through the short-term market volatility and remain focused on our long-term goals," Khazanah managing director Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir said.

He noted there are ongoing concerns that the inflationary environment and tightening monetary conditions will lead to a global recession, exacerbated by continuing geopolitical risks.

However, he said Khazanah's disciplined investment approach, as guided by its long-term strategic asset allocation and active portfolio management helped navigate the volatility in the markets as it maintained discipline in its value creation and monetization efforts.

In anticipation of another challenging year ahead of below-trend global growth on the back of monetary policy shift to combat inflation, and persistent geopolitical tensions, Khazanah said it will remain vigilant in its investing activities with the aim of maintaining portfolio resilience through diversification.

Despite the uncertainties, the fund remains optimistic in identifying investment opportunities within emerging global trends -- structural changes to the multipolar global system and the growing challenges of climate change, energy transition and sustainability. (1 ringgit equals 0.22 U.S. dollar)