Malaysia Is The 12th Most Competitive Nation

Malaysia has moved up three spots in an international ranking on competitiveness but still lags behind neighbour Singapore, which made it into the top three this year.

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The 12th spot or 82.09 score (out of 100) has put Malaysia among the top 15 most competitive nation that included the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany and Canada.

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It also continued to be ahead of UK, which was ranked 16th, Australia (17th), Finland (18th), New Zealand (20th), Japan (21st) and South Korea (26th).

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The US retains the No. 1 spot in 2014, reflecting the resilience of its economy, better employment numbers, and its dominance in technology and infrastructure. There are no big changes among the top ten. Small economies such as Switzerland (2), Singapore (3) and Hong Kong (4) continue to prosper thanks to exports, business efficiency and innovation.

Europe fares better than last year, thanks to its gradual economic recovery. Denmark (9) enters the top ten, joining Switzerland, Sweden (5), Germany (6) and Norway (10). Among Europe's peripheral economies, Ireland (15), Spain (39) and Portugal (43) all rise, while Italy (46) and Greece (57) fall.

Japan (21) continues to climb in the rankings, helped by a weaker currency that has improved its competitiveness abroad. Elsewhere in Asia, both Malaysia (12) and Indonesia (37) make gains, while Thailand (29) falls amid political uncertainty.

Most big emerging markets slide in the rankings as economic growth and foreign investment slow and infrastructure remains inadequate. China (23) falls, partly owing to concerns about its business environment, while India (44) and Brazil (54) suffer from inefficient labor markets and ineffective business management. Turkey (40), Mexico (41), the Philippines (42) and Peru (50) also fall.

In general there is a strong correlation between a country's overall competitiveness ranking and its international image as a place to do business.

IMD, a top-ranked global business school based in Switzerland, today announced its annual world competitiveness ranking. As part of its ranking of 60 economies for 2014, the IMD World Competitiveness Center also looks at perceptions of each country as a place to do business.

"While economic performance changes from year to year, perceptions are longer-term and shift more gradually. They can also lead to a virtuous circle of better image and better economic performance," Professor Bris said. "So how executives feel their country is being perceived is a potentially useful guide to future competitiveness developments there."

This comes after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last November that he wanted Malaysia to break into the top 10 of the competitiveness index on the back of government initiatives.

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MALAYSIA’S ranking improved three notches to 12th, among 60 countries, in the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2014, its best performance in four years, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

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The jump is a testimony of growing confidence in the government's various initiatives to transform the economy into that of a high-income nation by 2020.

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Mustapa said the report reflected measures Malaysia had undertaken under the Government Transformation and Economic Transformation Programmes. "We will continue to strengthen our global competitiveness through efforts targeted at enhancing Malaysia's investment environment and promoting policies that would increase trade, harness talents to achieve higher productivity growth, intensify efforts to reduce regulatory burden, as well as, strengthen the country's technological capabilities.

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“We are also committed in implementing and executing a sustainable economic policy in ensuring a more prosperous and developed Malaysia as opposed to short-term, populist shortcuts that will have negative consequences in the long-run,” he said in a statement today.

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The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, which will be published at the end of June, measures how well countries manage all their resources and competencies to increase their prosperity. The overall ranking released today reflects more than 300 criteria, two-thirds of which are based on statistical indicators and one-third on an exclusive IMD survey of 4,300 international executives.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook assessed countries based on economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

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IMD is a top-ranked business school. We are the experts in developing global leaders through high-impact executive education. We are 100% focused on real-world executive development. Published since 1989, the World Competitiveness Yearbook is recognized as the leading annual report on the competitiveness of nations.