RIYADH: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has been nominated for the Leadership Personality Award for Entrepreneurship for 2015 by the General Secretariat of Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Global Entrepreneurship Prize on Friday.

Announcing the award, Secretary General of the Prize and Director General of the Centennial Fund Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi said the award will be presented at the third awards ceremony to be held in Riyadh Nov. 3, 2015.

Al-Mutairi said the granting of the award to Dr. Mahathir Mohamad comes in recognition of his rich experience in supporting entrepreneurship in the world, and small and medium enterprises, and his efforts to promote a culture of entrepreneurship among young people and youth organizations in Malaysia and other countries of the world.

“His role in the development and promotion of awareness of the ongoing entrepreneurship helped transform the national economy to a sustainable system.”

Al-Mutairi said this award is concerned with innovation and creativity, and is sponsored by Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah,

deputy foreign minister and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centennial Fund, and is the first of its kind in the world. The level of cash awards is up to SR1 million.

Mahathir Mohamad was the fourth prime minister of Malaysia, holding office from 1981 to 2003. He improved the economy and was a champion of developing nations.

He was born in 1925 in Alor Setar, Malaysia. He was a physician before becoming active in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysia’s largest political party and was later elected to its policy-making group, the Supreme Council. With the support of UMNO, he won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1964.

He wrote a book, “The Malay Dilemma,” demanding affirmative action for indigenous Malays and equal status with Chinese-Malaysians, while also criticizing Malays’ “economic backwardness.” These then-radical ideas earned the ire of Prime Minister Abdul Rahman, and UMNO banned the book and expelled Mahathir from the party.

Mahathir had a significant impact on the economy, culture and government of Malaysia. He won five consecutive elections and served for 22 years, longer than any other prime minister in Malaysia’s history.

Under him, Malaysia experienced rapid economic growth. He began privatizing government enterprises, including airlines, utilities and telecommunications, which raised money for the government and improved working conditions for many employees, although many of the beneficiaries were UMNO supporters. One of his most significant infrastructure projects was the North-South Expressway, a highway that runs from the Thai border to Singapore.

From 1988 to 1996, Malaysia saw an 8 percent economic expansion, and Mahathir released an economic plan — The Way Forward, or Vision 2020 — asserting that the country would be a fully developed nation by 2020. He helped shift the country’s economic base away from agriculture and natural resources and toward manufacturing and exporting, and the country’s per capita income doubled from 1990 to 1996.

Mahathir retired in 2003, and remains an active and a visible part of Malaysia’s political landscape.