Speaking to Channel NewsAsia (CNA) on the sidelines of the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit 2017 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Treasury secretary-general Irwan Siregar Abdullah said entrepreneurs have nothing to worry over the outcome of GE14, which must be called by June next year.

“Whether you wait until elections are over or now, it’s the same. This is a stable country, stable government, nothing will change.

“I’m very positive that the country’s political stability will be continued and we can move on,” Irwan told the regional news broadcaster.

He added that Malaysia’s future “looks very bright”.

“The economy is growing and with government plans, the budget announced in October also put a lot of emphasis on infrastructure, on development of human capital. All these things will help sustain economic growth,” Irwan was quoted as saying.

According to CNA, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) preliminary report released this morning seemed to support Irwan’s comment, as it said the Malaysian economy has shown resilience in recent years and continues to perform well.

Referring to entrepreneurs in Malaysia, Irwan believes they have been slow to catch up to their peers in some developed nations, suggesting that a “quantum leap” was needed.

“The ecosystem has been stagnant for quite some time. People are complacent, comfortable with the older regime, environment and so on,” he told CNA.

“We have been left out. Korea, which was on par with us in the 70s, has moved way ahead and now they’re almost like the Silicon Valley in the US and so on.

“So if we do a catching-up process, by the time we move there, they would have reached further up. So we need a quantum leap,” he was quoted as saying, adding that Malaysia has the knowledge, the mindset and the resources but lacks the facilitating environment.