MINISTER:INCREASED INVESTMENTS EXPECTED INTO MALAYSIA AFTER WCY REPORT

By Massita Ahmad

PUTRAJAYA, June 3 (Bernama) -- International Trade and Industry Minister
Mustapa Mohamed is optimistic Malaysia will attract higher foreign
and domestic investments after the country moved up eight notches to emerge the
tenth most competitive nation in the world.

"We hope this ranking will help lure more foreign investments into the
country," he told Bernama recently.

Foreign investments worth more than RM15 billion (US$1=RM3.27) have begun to
pour in since
early this year from Western Digital, Coca Cola, Sun Bear Solar Ltd and Qatar
Investment Authority.

"This just goes to show the outside world is more confident with Malaysia
following the positive report," he said.

Malaysia had earlier targetted foreign investments of about RM40 billion for
this year against RM32.6 billion approved last year.

Mustapa said the investments were of high-quality which was in tandem with
the
country moving towards a high-income economy.

"We are confident the perception towards Malaysia will continue improving.
We
are also confident the world community will view Malaysia more favourably,
especially, as an ideal investment location.

"Investors will refer to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010 report.
There
are many other factors which they will look at, among them, Malaysia's global
ranking.

For the first time since Malaysia participated in the World Competitiveness
Yearbook 2010 study by the Swiss-based Institute for Management Development, the
country ranked as the 10th most competitive nation among 58 economies.

Mustapa said the WCY report was frequently being referred to by businessmen,
government agencies and academicians as a guide to determine investment plans
and ideal locations for new operations.

Mustapa also said government agencies would use important indicators in the
report to benchmark policies with other countries and to constantly gauge
performances.

"Academicians refer to the report to obtain a better understanding and to
analise the competitiveness of other countries.

Malaysia shares the limelight of being among the top ten competitive nation
together with Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, Switzerland, Australia,
Sweden, Canada, Taiwan and Norway.

Malaysia has overtaken several developed countries such as Denmark, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook report is published, annually, by the
institute since 1989.



The report studies the capabilities of emerging economies in maintaining
their
level of competitiveness.

Overall, Malaysia hovered among the top 20 in the past five years.

In 2006, Malaysia ranked 22th and climbed to 19th placing in 2008 and
improved
another notch to 18th position last year.

Malaysia achieved an index score of 87.228 compared with 77.162 in the
previous
year.

The report measures a country's capability based on four competitiveness
factors namely government efficiency, business efficiency, economic performance
and infrastructure.

Malaysia's performance according to the four competitiveness factors showed
that the country recorded remarkable improvement in rankings for government
efficiency at 9th position (2009:19th), business efficiency at 4th (2009:13th),
economic performance and infrastructure factors improved to 8th (2009: 9th) and
25th (2009: 26th) respectively.

Mustapa said the encouraging improvement in government and business
efficiency
indicated the clear link between public and private sector engagement, which has
resulted in a change in the way both sectors regarded and worked with each
other.

The government's Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) which
was
established in February 2007, is aimed at enhancing transparency and
streamlining processes and procedures, tangible results have been evident.

This ease of doing business in Malaysia has impacted positively on the
rankings
for government efficiency and business efficiency input factors.

For instance, the number of start-up days in Malaysia, an indicator of the
ease
of doing business, has improved to three-days from 11-days previously.

The aim is to further improve this to one-day.


For Malaysia's business efficiency, it ranked first (2009:13th), as corporate
board of directors were able to supervise the management of companies
effectively.

The report also said financial risk factors like new financial instruments,
non-performing loans and others were also in first placing (2009:10th) as they
were well addressed in Malaysia.

It also said the stock market provided adequate financing to companies and
this
placed Malaysia in second place (2009:4th).

Mustapa said the remarkable advancement in government efficiency rating,
where
Malaysia moved up to ninth position (2009:19th), demonstrated its transformation
programme was beginning to deliver results.

The implementation of programmes as identified through the laboratory
methodology had resulted in achievements in the six National Key Results Areas
(NKRA) such as the reduction in street crime rate by 32 per cent for the first
quarter of 2010.

The harcore families listed in the eKasih system were reduced to 32,271 from

44,643 previously.

The perception on bribe and corruption had improved to 26th placing
(2009:31) while there was less bureaucracy in business activity as reflected in
the improved ranking to fourth position (2009:16).

Mustapa also said the report was based on quantitative or statistical data
and qualitative or perception data obtained from private sector feedback through
the Executive Opinion Survey.

In Malaysia, the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), in collaboration
with the Swiss-based Institute for Management Development, distributed the
survey forms, as partner institute. Forms were also sent to respondents online.

As partner institute, MPC receives the results a week in advance and the
Swiss institute allows the report to be released after the embargo date.

The perception data is used to complement the statistical data to quantify
issues that are not easily measured for instance management practices and labour
relations.

Mustapa also said the survey responses reflected opinions of the business
community towards the competitiveness environment of an economy.

Overall, there were 327 criteria used in the World Competitiveness Report
2010 out of which 253 criteria (statistical data:138 and perception data:115)
were used to rank and determine the overall scoreboard.

Mustapa said in terms of economic performance, the Malaysian economy grew at
a faster pace than expected since the last-quarter of 2009.

The growth momentum continued into the first-quarter of 2010 with gross
exports rising by 30.7 per cent contributing to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
growth of 10.1 per cent.

Malaysia's exports recorded a new high in March registering a significant
growth of 36.4 per cent, year-on-year.


He said given the robust performance and the introduction of economic
transformation initiatives by the government, Malaysia was expected to achieve a
growth target of six per cent this year.

"Our competitive nation status was not attained solely because of government
efforts but the people also assumed an important role in being innovative to
ensure remarkable improvement in government delivery.

"The private sector is the engine of growth and has aggressively facilitated
government initiatives in business transformation and in moving towards a
high-income economy.

-- BERNAMA



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