Idris Jala became the CEO of Malaysia’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) in 2009, when the country’s economic indicators were signalling some risks – government debt was growing by an average of 12% a year and fiscal deficit was equal to 6.7% of Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“In 2009, I said that if Malaysia was going to continue on the path it was on, it was going to end up like Greece… Either we continued on that path or we picked a mildly expansionary growth option where the private sector, not government spending, was going to lead the way,” says Mr Jala.
