KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's political stability is crucial to move the country forward, Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah said.
He said political stability would planners to focus on pertinent policies to safeguard Malaysia's economy and restore confidence among investors, for example.
The Perak ruler such was among the topic discussed in the book "Leap into the Future: the building blocks towards balanced development" today, which he launched today at at the Asia-Europe Institute, Universiti Malaya.
He said the book contained a wide range of crucial topics on the country and economy, with the most notable being political stability .
"What Malaysia needs at the moment is political stability, without which we will be unable to move forward effectively.
"Political stability will allow our planners to focus more fully on the longer term, and put into place the policies and measures that are necessary, in turn, to build confidence among investors," he said.
Sultan Nazrin stressed that further strengthening of the country's institutions was a priority to ensure the effective implementation of various policies that would propel Malaysia forward.
He said globally and historically, countries that had been successful were those with robust institutions that enable element for growth and development.
"The operation of a strong and predictable rule of law, with effective checks on power, forms the very foundation of successful modern states and economies. And it requires active government commitment to implement and to further develop regulatory and institutional frameworks. Malaysia has strong institutional foundations in many respects.
"Now we need to muster the political will to drive our institutions forward in the new directions that are necessary.
"Our developmental model must also, of course, be genuinely inclusive. As the book suggests, our approach in areas from education and human capital development, to poverty and inequality, must entail the inclusion of all Malaysians, irrespective of ethnicity and religion," he said.
He highlighted that Malaysians were all equally part of the country's success—in the present and past, as the country as a whole has built shared prosperity together; and into the future, as everyone close ranks to meet its complex challenges together.
"When we find ourselves embroiled in such challenging and uncertain times as at present - with the lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the continuing fall-out from the Russia-Ukraine war, let alone the climate crisis - it can be easy to lose sight of the longer term.
"The book's ultimate focus is on how to promote the structural changes that are necessary in order to boost and sustain our economic growth. To this end, it covers a range of topics that must all be understood in detail for us to chart our path forward," he said.
Sultan Nazrin said the book's editors, Rajah Rasiah, Kamal Salih and Cheong Kee Cheok, managed to meet such a demanding objective with the book, both in the range of issues that it brought together, as well as in the scope of its approach.
"So we are given detailed appraisals of not only where we are as a nation, and how we got here, but also credible visions of our routes forward in relation to all the various topics or building blocks."