Malaysia Has Lost Its Spot In The World's 20 Most Competitive Economies
Slipping seven places from its previous ranking, Malaysia is now ranked 25th.
By Sadho Ram — 28 Sep 2016, 07:48 PM
The Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum has placed Switzerland at the top of its latest ranking for the eighth year in a row, followed by Singapore which is ranked above the US
Competitiveness is defined by the WEF as “the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.” The concept has emerged in the recent years as a new model to measure economic development. WEF identifies twelve pillars or factors, that determine overall competitiveness.
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The same WEF report, however, reveals that Malaysia has slipped seven places from its previous ranking of 18th. After losing its spot in the top 20, Malaysia is now ranked 25th out of 140 countries.
The Geneva-based organisation, which assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies, ranked Malaysia at 25. Last year’s report placed Malaysia at the 18th spot.
Considered the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide, the WEF’s GCR uses 12 pillars of competitiveness to derive the status of a country pertaining to factors which drives its productivity and prosperity.
In terms of score, Malaysia’s performance came down from 5.23 to 5.16 out of a maximum of seven. The report was released yesterday by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC).
On the other hand, while Malaysia was ranked 7th among the 27 Asia-Pacific countries this year, its performance showed a decline in several of the indicators including institutions, health and primary education, higher education and training, reported The Malay Mail
Under the institutions, among the highlighted areas of improvement by the report include judicial independence, business cost of terrorism, business cost of crime and violence as well as organised crime.
For higher education and training pillar, the areas that Malaysia needs to look into include secondary education enrolment rate and tertiary education enrolment rate.
Other recommendations include improving our female participation in the labour force, total tax rate, and Internet bandwidth and subscriptions.
themalaymailonline.com
Meanwhile, International Trade and Industry Minister, Mustapa Mohamed, blamed the drop in the ranking on the "false news" which was spread about Malaysia, thus developing a negative perception towards the country, reported Free Malaysia Today
“There is also the issue of perception due to irresponsible acts of certain parties which continue to spread unfounded and baseless allegations about domestic political developments and the state of our economy. The fact is Malaysia remains politically stable and the economic fundamentals remain strong. This perception issue must be taken seriously and the Government will continue engaging with various stakeholders to address it,” Mustapa said.