Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today urged civil servants to break away from the traditional mindset in order to achieve greater heights.

"I have always urged that we must have the courage to separate from the traditional mindset, to be brave in breaking the barrier of impossibility and to base our performance upon creativity and innovation," Najib said.

pm open house 190812 najib The prime minister said in his speech at the National Heart Institute (IJN) this afternoon, during which he presented the Anugerah Inovasi Perdana Menteri to the hospital for its excellence in management.

The country's challenge today, Najib said, was in attempting to generate new wealth in a competitive world.

This, he said, could best be achieved through creativity and innovation.

"The challenges today are how to create new wealth and how to attain our competitive edge. These aspects are therefore very important."

This, Najib added, was particularly true in the public service.

"In this competitive world, the public service must adopt a culture of excellence in management that will allow us to provide better services.

"It should be based on creativity and innovation, which will be the catalyst for providing us with a competitive edge," Najib said.

The presentation to the IJN today was accompanied with prize money of RM1 million.