PM NAJIB WANTS M'SIA TO BE AMONG TOP FIVE IN GLOBAL COMPETITION

From Ahmad Kamil Tahir

VIENTIANE, June 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia should climb to become among the
world's top five in the list of competitiveness after leaping into the top 10
last year, said Najib Tun Razak Thursday.

As such, the Prime Minister said Malaysia could not be complacent and should
instead continue to strive to achieve the top five position in the world.

"We must work hard to achieve this target," he said at a meeting with about
120 Malaysian nationals in Laos, here.

Najib said that in the past year, the country had achieved two feats which
should make all Malaysians proud.

"Firstly, we were able to turn the economy around from recession to record a
growth of 10.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year.


"How many countries can record such a massive growth? Secondly, Malaysia had
leapt from the 18th position to the 10th most competitive country in the world
within one year.

"We should be proud of this achievement. But we should not be complacent
with
being among the top ten. We want to become the top five," he said at the meeting
in conjunction with his first official visit to Laos.

Najib, accompanied by his wife Rosmah Mansor, was leading a
delegation of three ministers, several government officials and 70 businessmen
during his two-day visit.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), published by the International
Institute for Management Development (IMD) based in Switzerland, recently listed
Malaysia in the 10th spot in its list of top countries in terms of
competitiveness, jumping from number 18 in the previous year.

This is the first time Malaysia is listed among the top 10 since it was
first
entered into the WCY list in 1999.

Najib said that as Prime Minister, he would continue to work tirelessly to
transform the country.

"I want to shoulder the burden as Prime Minister to try my level best to
transform Malaysia," he said.

Najib said efforts to transform the country could not be shouldered by him
alone, adding that the whole Cabinet line-up, in fact all Malaysians within and
outside the country must also be involved.

"This is not about politics, on the contrary, it's about efforts to achieve
success. What we want to see is that Malaysia progresses in future and I'm
confident that with your support, we can make it," Najib added.

-- BERNAMA



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