KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — The government's role is to maintain a credible policy and fiscal framework while using public capital to unlock markets, enabling private capital to play a larger role in driving investment, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said.
He said while the government could provide policy certainty and maintain a credible fiscal framework, financing innovation and business expansion should increasingly be undertaken by banks, institutional investors, venture capital firms and private equity players.
“The government can provide certainty, but the market has to take risks.
“The government should make the foundations predictable, while investors should make the possibilities exciting by backing new companies, technologies and business models before the outcomes are obvious,” he said in his keynote address at the RHB Progress Series 2026 here today.
Amir Hamzah said venture capital could take on the earliest risks, while growth capital and private equity could finance expansion. Banks would play a larger role as companies' cash flows strengthened, while public markets would provide another source of capital as businesses matured.
He said initiatives such as Khazanah Nasional Bhd's Jelawang Capital and the Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP)'s Dana Perintis were bringing more institutional capital to early-stage companies, while banks and the capital market offered much deeper pools of funding as businesses expanded.
“The strength of that financing spectrum is in the connections between them, so that a company that proves itself at one stage can find the capital to move naturally into the next,” he said.
Amir Hamzah also said Malaysia's global sukuk issuances had provided the government with a useful benchmark, while international investors continued to demonstrate strong confidence in Malaysian sovereign risk.
“The question for the banks, asset owners and fund managers in this room is whether our own financial system has the expertise and instruments to back good Malaysian companies earlier in their journey.
“The standard remains high. The difference is being able to price that risk earlier, rather than waiting for uncertainty to disappear,” he said.
