Over next 5-10 years there should be plan to divest bulk of state ownership in business. This will derisk companies from political intervention, no matter who’s in charge. Important step towards institutionalising Corporate Malaysia.

Why this long? It takes time to find the right divestment opportunity. Some companies are ready to be sold today, some need several years. The climate today is not condusive for sale. But it is right time to restructure

Govt can raise a lot of money from these divestments. They can raise more if they allow turnaround of these companies to happen and then sell at higher price when business is performing better

There are many companies that entrepreneurs who would love to buy because of the value creation opportunity that can be done. But all this dependent on willingness to let go. But identify proper entreprenuers and give them skin in the game by way of shares when they hit milestone

The argument will be ‘we tried that but did not work’. We gave it to cronies rather than right qualified individuals. Success story I can think of is Khazanah’s divestment of TimeDotCom to Afzal.

Malaysia Airlines could do with somebody who’s CEO & owner to have skin in the game. But one that must be independent and not hope to be bailed out (again) when business goes south. But you’d have to have some gumption to be keen on an airline now

This will also create more entreprenuers. Pre Asian Financial Crisis, Malaysia was home to many entreprenuers who have since sold their stake (mainly to govt) and ventured abroad. This has resulted in more state ownership

What will happen to GLICs who are dependent on dividends from these companies? Start diversifying today. Invest in bigger pool of high yielding assets. Dont need to own 51% stake to achieve this. Parenting of GLCs has not yielded the best results so far.

GLICs need to become portfolio investors, not strategic owners of businesses. This important too as the most funds will have to pay out dividends so helps when portfolio is tilted towards more liquid assets.

There should NOT be large scale national transformation programmes. Let individual companies decide what needs to be done. Past transformation projects focused on targets like ‘becoming regional champions’, which may motivate mgmt behaviour differently

As a start, govt should let go of golden share. This would be the game changer. Govt’s role is to set policies & regulate, not own businesses. Most data available globally will show that govt have had bad track record of managing businesses

What about national assets? Govt can regulate through tariffs for sectors of national importance like electricity & water and enforce rules on local ownership & standard (ports / airport)

Requires very strong will which I doubt can be achieved anytime soon. The road to success is a long hard one, at some point we need to reset and be honest with some of the failings as result of state ownership