KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd has called upon all stakeholders in the country to join hands in solving critical issues facing Malaysia, amid the evolving global megatrends.
This includes politicians, as the sovereign wealth fund’s managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir opined that it is “impossible to separate economics from politics”.
Amirul Feisal asserted that no single entity, however powerful or influential, can tackle issues by itself.
“It requires engaging with a whole host of stakeholders – a bargain of sorts – be it local communities, government or non-governmental organisations.
“Just imagine trying to tackle something like climate change, food security or economic development but only with public policy, or only with investment capital. It’s just not possible.
“As such, we need to build coalitions with stakeholders to make meaningful progress on complex issues,” he said.
Amirul Feisal delivered the opening remarks at the two-day Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2023 yesterday.
In his speech, Amirul Feisal, who has previously served as Malayan Banking Bhd
’s chief financial officer, also defended the role of government-owned companies in the business sector.
According to him, government-owned entities are typically criticised for “crowding out” private players.
“(However), we believe that we also have a responsibility to “crowd in” private players and other stakeholders.
“Take for instance, Dana Impak, our RM6bil allocation to increase Malaysia’s competitiveness and build national resilience.
“Among the programmes we’ve launched under Dana Impak is the Future Malaysia Programme, which seeks to invest in the Malaysian venture ecosystem,” he said.
Amirul Feisal highlighted the importance of various stakeholders in the economy to collaborate, including private companies, the government, regulators, fund managers, non-governmental organisations and academia.
He also noted that it is “borderline absurd” to assume Khazanah Nasional is fit to invest all along the venture spectrum.
“As such, we work with partners such as 500 Global, Gobi, Antler, Plug and Play, PETRONAS Ventures and more to ensure that we take a holistic approach in the value chain,” he said.
The sovereign wealth fund recently launched the Khazanah Impact Innovation Challenge with the theme of “Tackling the Climate Challenge for Malaysia’s Food Security”, to discover and support new businesses in solving a key challenge for Malaysia.
“A total of 15 companies have been identified to go through the accelerator run by Plug and Play, which will kick off next week,” Amirul Feisal said.
Commenting on Khazanah’s investment strategy, Amirul Feisal said it is shaped by its overall strategic goal of “Advancing Malaysia”.
“And in executing on this strategy, we must, among others, ensure value creation in our companies where we have large shareholdings, invest strategically in solving issues that Malaysia faces via our impact fund or “Dana Impak”, produce strong risk-adjusted returns from our global investment operations, and deliver societal value to our ultimate stakeholders, the rakyat,” he added.
Looking ahead, Amirul Feisal highlighted the need for the country to choose development over other objectives such as “military might or extraction of resources”.
“In the past few years, we have all done our best to make our way through a pandemic, geopolitical tensions, war in Ukraine, rising inflation and a weakened global economy and more.
“And, I think, we are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, or at least some optimism after some very difficult times,” he said.
The Khazanah Megatrends Forum was first introduced in 2005.
This year’s forum is themed “Our Next Episode: Orchestrating A New Development Bargain for Sustainable Growth” and entails 29 speakers from a diverse spectrum of countries and backgrounds.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the chairman of Khazanah, will deliver the closing address today.
