Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said on Monday (April 22) that one of the major challenges for Malaysia in becoming a top startup ecosystem by 2030 is the government's ability to change society’s model of success and risk aversion.
Rafizi said this at a panel session of the KL20 Summit 2024 on Monday (April 22).
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Rafizi said this at a panel session of the KL20 Summit 2024 on Monday (April 22).
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
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NewsTranscript
00:00For me, when I do that, it's very rarely there are follow-ups when we do those kind of things.
00:06So if I were to share what is my biggest concern,
00:15and I don't think this is an answer that comes out in any tech forum,
00:22is the ability of the government to change our society's success model and risk aversion.
00:33Malaysia, as a country, has built our economy on large-scale sectors.
00:42Plantations, oil and gas, electronics.
00:48So much so that I think for the last 50 years,
00:53we looked at employment in big industries as an affirmation of success.
01:03So you have talents in this country,
01:06and this is very unpopular because all of us, the older generation, actually went through this stage.
01:13You know, if you're a top student and you're a good talent,
01:18chances are they would want to work at a pretty stable corporate career.
01:30And that presents a problem to the country,
01:33especially as we are pushing for a higher value type of economic activities,
01:40especially in start-up and tech, where it is extremely, extremely risky.
01:46So as I went through this, first myself personally, because that was my route for a career,
01:52in your traditional audit firms, and in oil and gas, and in pharmaceuticals,
01:58I realised that if you were to strike it on your own here, it's very difficult.
02:05It's difficult because it's risky, and it becomes a vicious cycle
02:09because it's precisely because it's risky, the capital wouldn't come in.
02:13The whole ecosystem does not support it.
02:16So our preoccupation that I think is the most challenging of all the pillars of the ecosystem
02:25is very quickly changing society's appetite for risk, for success, for innovation,
02:35and that cannot be done in the overall start-up ecosystem.
02:40It will help as you have more founders coming, as you have more funding,
02:46and you start seeing some of this early success, that will help,
02:50but ultimately we have to change the fibre of society,
02:55and that goes into the education system, that goes into government's focus,
03:00and that's precisely why we want to send a signal to society that government takes risk seriously.