KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor aims to prepare a new generation of entrepreneurs and leaders to compete across the Asean region, says Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
Governments, businesses and institutions, he said, could create opportunities for progress, but young people must be equipped to seize them.
“Ultimately, the future belongs to those who walk through the doors we open,” he said after the opening of the Selangor International Business Summit (SIBS) 2026 here yesterday.
In his special royal address at the Selangor ASEAN Business Conference (SABC), held as part of SIBS 2026, Tengku Amir Shah said the SABC, now in its 10th edition, began in 2017 with discussions on Selangor as a gateway for trade and investment in Asean.
However, he said a gateway had little meaning unless people were able to pass through it.
“As SABC enters its second decade, our ambition should not simply be to make Selangor a gateway to Asean. It should be to ensure that, through Selangor, a new generation is ready to lead Asean,” said Tengku Amir Shah.
“That is a future worth opening the door to.”
SABC’s focus has since expanded to economic integration, innovation, connectivity, resilience and sustainability.
Tengku Amir Shah said young people needed access to opportunities, networks and markets to grow their businesses, citing the state’s PLATS initiative, which had reached more than 90,000 entrepreneurs across Selangor’s 12 local authorities this year.
PLATS, or Platform Selangor, is an initiative to help hawkers, petty traders, and SMEs transition to digital platforms.
Tengku Amir Shah also highlighted the SAY ASPIRE initiative, which helps young entrepreneurs expand into international markets, and the Triple Accelerator Programme, launched this year to support founders in deep technology, retail innovation and digital assets.
He called for stronger regional integration to enable businesses to expand across Asean, particularly as supply chains shift and economies compete for investment, technology and talent.
“The real test of Asean integration is not how often we speak of a single market, but whether a founder in one Asean country can genuinely build for the 10 others,” he said.
He added that young people needed the tools, training and market access to turn their potential into productive capacity.
SIBS 2026 opened with the exchange of strategic memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and letters of intent (LOIs) facilitating investments exceeding RM3bil.
The LOIs, facilitated by UOB Malaysia, involved Galaxy Data Centre, XTC New Energy, Shenghui Biotechnology (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Wuxi Weifu Environmental Catalysts Co Ltd.
The four-day summit, running until Saturday, targets RM8bil in potential transaction value and 50,000 visitors.
It features 526 booths, 110 delegates and 188 speakers across nine specialised conference programmes.
The opening ceremony was graced by Tengku Amir Shah and attended by Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, senior government officials, business leaders and industry representatives.
Also present were Selangor investment, trade and mobility committee chairman Ng Sze Han, Selangor speaker Lau Weng San and Selangor state secretary Datuk Dr Ahmad Fadzli Ahmad Tajuddin.
In his address, Amirudin said Selangor was shifting its industrial focus from “Made in Malaysia” to “Designed and Engineered by Malaysia”, moving beyond low-cost manufacturing towards innovation and higher-value industries.
“We are not interested in competing for who can offer the cheapest labour. We are competing for who can provide the sharpest minds, the most cutting-edge technology, investors who want to develop as partners and build sustainable, equal relationships,” he said.
He said the state was steering its industrial base towards advanced automation, life sciences, green technology and digital infrastructure.
While Malaysia has established strengths in semiconductor packaging and testing, Selangor is targeting higher-value segments, including front-end integrated circuit design, electronic design automation and intellectual property creation.
Initiatives such as the Malaysia Semiconductor IC Design Park in Puchong aim to provide high-performance computing infrastructure and develop local engineering talent to design advanced chips.
“We want the next generation of semiconductors powering global artificial intelligence to be conceived, developed and brought to life in this state,” Amirudin said.
He also stressed the need to narrow inequality in salaries and opportunities, saying prosperity must be shared and felt by all in Asean.
Organised by Invest Selangor Berhad and hosted by the Selangor State Government, SIBS 2026 is held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre with the theme “Selangor, the Gateway to Asean”.
The summit comprises seven components covering regional economic cooperation, investment, industrial parks, artificial intelligence and semiconductors, healthcare, technology and talent development.
Supported by private-sector sponsors UOB Malaysia, JLL and OCBC, it aims to strengthen business connections and investment opportunities across Selangor, Malaysia and the wider region.
