Malaysia moves up to 12 spot in global competitiveness ranking

23 May 2014

Malaysia has moved up three notches to12th spot among 60 economies in the World Competitiveness Ranking 2014 released today by the Switzerland-based IMD World Competitiveness Centre.

IMD World Competitiveness Center Director, Professor Arturo Bris told the New Straits Times that the improved ranking would renew interest and attract investments to the country.

Malaysia has improved its openness to foreign markets and attracted capital and investment at increasing rates, Bris added.

Among countries in Asia, Malaysia is ranked third after Singapore and Hong Kong, moving up one position from 4th placing last year and ahead of developed economies like Taiwan (overall 13th), Japan (overall 21st) and South Korea (overall 26th). Malaysia is also ahead of China which came in at 23rd placing and India at no.44 overall.

Within ASEAN, Malaysia is ranked second after Singapore, followed by Thailand (overall 29), Indonesia (overall 37) and the Philippines (overall 42).

Among countries with a population above 20 million, Malaysia moved up to 4th position from 5th last year.

The overall ranking took into consideration over 300 criteria, two-thirds of which are based on statistical indicators and one-third on an exclusive IMD survey of 4,300 global executives.

The criteria are grouped under four categories economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

The United States remained as the most competitive economy in the world this year, followed by Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sweden among the top five in the ranking.

Meanwhile, the Minister of International Trade and Industry, Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed in a statement, said the 12th position was Malaysia’s best performance in the past four years and reflected the progress of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

Source: NST Business Times and The Star 22 May 2014 and IMD website