KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd needs to build coalitions with stakeholders to make meaningful progress on complex issues such as climate change, food security and economic development.
Managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir said no single entity, however powerful or influential, can tackle these issues by itself.
It requires a bargain of sorts with a whole host of stakeholders, including local communities, the government and non-government organisations (NGOs), to come to some agreement to move forward in some direction, he said in his welcoming remarks today at the two-day Khazanah Megatrends Forum (KMF) 2023.
The forum, held in hybrid form, carries the theme ‘Our Next Episode: Orchestrating a Development Bargain for Sustainable Growth’.
“I believe that ‘Our Next Episode’ theme displays our conviction that we are now ready to move forward into whatever comes next but, at the same time, we must do it with purpose, with intention, and most of all, we must do it together,” Amirul Feisal said.
He also remarked that it is impossible to separate economics and politics anywhere in the world as both sides need to collaborate.
“After all, every policy has trade-offs that may benefit group A at the expense of group B. Balancing those benefits and expense require both economic and political perspectives.
“We may often hear statements like ‘This economic policy is perfect, but you know lah, politics gets in the way. But the reality is that economics and politics do go hand in hand,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amirul Feisal also said that in executing the overall strategic goal of ‘Advancing Malaysia’, Khazanah needs to ensure value creation in its companies where it has large shareholdings, and invest strategically in solving issues that Malaysia faces via its impact fund or Dana Impak.
It also has to produce strong risk-adjusted returns from its global investment operations and deliver societal value to its ultimate stakeholders, the Malaysian people, he said.
Recognising that it is part of a broader ecosystem, Amirul Feisal said, Khazanah must work with private companies, the government, regulators, fund managers, foundations, NGOs, academia, and many more.
“To that end, while government-owned entities are typically criticised for ‘crowding out’ private players, we believe that we also have a responsibility to ‘crowd in’ private players and other stakeholders,” he added.
KMF 2023 features 29 speakers and panel discussions that examine the theme from the perspective of markets, firms, society and people.
The forum, held for the 18th time since its introduction in 2005, encompasses innovative and creative discussions about the forces shaping the world and especially their impact on Malaysia. – BERNAMA
