This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 7, 2026 - September 13, 2026

For much of the 1990s, it was hard to doubt that Malaysia was filled with optimism. We won badminton’s Thomas Cup. We conquered the summit of Everest. We built the world’s tallest twin towers.

It seemed as though we were on the verge of becoming a regional powerhouse, albeit a pocket-sized one. For a while, Malaysia Boleh stopped sounding like a slogan. It felt like a statement of fact.

Some of that gumption, I would argue, was fuelled by the roaring Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange itself.

You did not need to own a single share to feel the spillover. People renovated their homes on market gains. Businesses spent more freely. Parents in the kampung received a wad of cash from children working in the city. Drivers got extra duit kopi when their bosses had a particularly good day on the market.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis was a harrowing but necessary lesson on the excesses the country had indulged in. We strengthened our financial system, repaired corporate balance sheets, tightened governance and became more disciplined about risk.

But perhaps we learnt the lesson too well. Prudence curdled into timidity. Stronger governance does not mean we cannot dream big. And rationalising costs should not come at the expense of productivity, investment or employee morale.

Our economy has grown in size and complexity, yet Bursa Malaysia barely reflects that advancement. The FBM KLCI has yet to regain the record close it set in 2018. Malaysia was the largest single constituent of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index at its inception in 1988; today, our weight sits at barely 1%. Foreign investors were net sellers of Malaysian equities in 10 of the 12 years until 2025.

Bursa’s equity market capitalisation stood at RM2.1 trillion in 2025, roughly the size of our economy. In 1995, it was around 2.8 times gross domestic product (GDP). We should not aspire to recreate the speculative excesses of that era. But neither should we be comfortable with how much relative ground we have lost since.

The weakness goes beyond share prices. Private investment stood at about 15% of GDP in 2022, less than half the 32% reached in 1997. Some of that decline was a necessary correction. But after a quarter century, we should ask whether the pendulum has swung too far.

Our own CGS International Research estimates that about 85% of earnings across our Malaysian coverage universe are linked to domestic demand. That is a striking number for one of the world’s most open trading economies.

The present government has worked to revive investment and growth. GDP expanded by 5.2% in both 2024 and 2025, and growth accelerated to 5.7% in the first half of 2026. The ringgit has recovered, and fresh investment is flowing into semiconductors, digital infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and the energy transition.

But holistic reform cannot be shouldered by the government alone. It is time for the private sector to take the baton and help untangle our structural knots.

The MY Value Up programme offers an excellent platform for that renewal. Inspired in part by Japan’s value-up reforms, it targets 88 of Bursa’s largest public-listed companies (PLCs), representing about 80% of total market capitalisation. From 2027, participating companies are expected to publish plans setting out their growth strategies, targets and capital allocation priorities.

The programme also supports the Capital Market Masterplan 2026-2030, which envisages the overall capital market growing by 6%-8% a year, from RM4.3 trillion in 2025 to as much as RM6.3 trillion by 2030.

Companies should not waste this opportunity by gaming ratios. Return on equity can be flattered by shrinking equity. Earnings per share can be lifted through buybacks. Margins can be protected by cutting the very investment a company will need in 10 years.

A spreadsheet may call that value creation. The future will disagree. True shareholder value is built by creating economic value for all stakeholders. Sustained productivity growth requires companies to innovate, invest in research and development (R&D) and compete for talent.

Ekonomi Madani has already charted where much of that opportunity lies: higher-value industries; the energy transition; advanced semiconductors; food security; the Islamic economy and the halal industry.

Nor should we be satisfied serving only our domestic market. The cardinal rule of investing is not to put all your eggs in one basket, especially not a basket of just 35 million people. Malaysian PLCs should be building products, capabilities and brands that travel.

Yet Malaysia spends only about 1% of GDP on R&D today, down from 1.4% in 2016. In an age when economic value increasingly resides in technology, knowledge and intellectual property, that trend should give Corporate Malaysia pause.

Some companies are already moving. Gamuda Bhd (KL:GAMUDA), one of CGS International Research’s high-conviction picks, has built a sizeable overseas footprint while pushing into renewable-energy infrastructure. Tenaga Nasional Bhd (KL:TENAGA) is investing heavily in the grid and positioning Malaysia for regional clean-energy trade. Sunway Bhd (KL:SUNWAY) is layering data centres, transit-oriented developments, renewable energy and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled operations onto its traditional businesses.

None of these is a safe, single-line business anymore. Each is betting that the next decade of Malaysian value will be built beyond the traditional boundaries of its business and that is precisely the nerve the rest of Corporate Malaysia needs to rediscover.

We do not need to recover the recklessness of the old Malaysia Boleh era, nor should we dream of restoring our old MSCI weight. But we could use some of its nerve, guided this time by prudence, innovation and a genuine commitment to creating value for all Malaysians.

Sixty-three years after Malaysia was formed, we have another chance to prove the old phrase still means something: not as a boast shouted after a badminton final or a summit photo, but as a plan, written into balance sheets and capital allocation strategies, for the companies we build, the markets we reach, and the capital market we leave behind for the next generation.

Malaysia Boleh was never really about winning once. It was about believing we could keep winning. It’s time Corporate Malaysia believed it again.

Khairi Shahrin Arief Baki is CEO of CGS International Securities Malaysia, with more than two decades of experience in the country’s capital markets

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