Malaysia remains in top 25 list
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia remains among the 25 most competitive nations despite a drop in ranking, according to the World Competitive Yearbook 2017 compiled by Switzerland-based Institute for Management Development (IMD).
External challenges and uncertainties last year had a say in the country’s competitiveness level.
The World Competitiveness Yearbook placed Malaysia at 24th position out of 63 countries.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said geopolitical uncertainties, China’s economic slowdown and sharp movements in commodity prices had affected market sentiment towards Malaysia and partly contributed to the decline.
“We need to consistently be on the lookout for new trends shaping the global economy and ensure that our economy can adapt to this changing landscape in order to remain competitive,” said Mustapa in a statement.
“It is clear that the current economic growth is by no means a guarantee of future competitiveness.”
Malaysia must continue benchmarking itself against the top performing economies, such as Hong Kong, Switzerland and Singapore.
The ministry, Mustapa said, would set up a taskforce comprising representatives from the public and private sector to act on key areas for improvement.
“The decline in ranking is something that we take seriously, and we’ve begun undertaking steps to improve our performance.”
He was referring to the five thrusts under the Malaysia Productivity Blueprint, which are building a high-skilled workforce, driving digitalisation and innovation, making industries accountable for productivity, forging a robust ecosystem to ensure effective implementation of regulations and securing a strong implementation mechanism through effective governance.
Malaysia was overtaken by Finland, China, Ireland, Israel and Belgium based on four competitiveness factors — economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
“Despite the successful initiatives rolled out thus far, we acknowledge that there’s a lot more to be done.
“Based on the current economic trends, such as stronger gross domestic product growth in the first quarter this year, the strengthening of ringgit and robust export growth, as well as the continuous transformation of the economy, we hope there will be an improvement in our ranking.”
Malaysia also ranked 24th in the new IMD Digital Competitiveness Ranking, which measures countries’ ability to adopt and explore digital technologies leading to transformation in government practices, business models and society in general.