MALAYSIA has been ranked the 12th most competitive nation in a survey by the World Competitiveness Centre (WCC) of the Institute of Management Development (IMD).
The survey by the centre, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, covered 60 countries.
IMD WCC director Arturo Bris described Malaysia’s performance as a success story as it had secured a spot in the top 15 nations, ahead of developed countries such as the United Kingdom (16th), Australia (17th), Japan (21st), China (23rd) and Korea (26th).
In 2011, Malaysia was placed 16th.
Bris said Malaysia was “doing great” in terms of competitiveness, adding that it had the potential of making to the top 10 in the next five years.
“It is the next country ranked after Singapore in Southeast Asia and has been performing extremely well.
Malaysia has many strengths and is highly ranked in several areas,” he said on the sidelines of the Productivity Competitiveness Conference 2014 organised by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) recently. The ranking was released in the World Competitiveness Yearbook, an annual report on the competitiveness
of nations published by WCC.
The centre analyses and ranks the ability of nations to create and maintain an environment that sustains the competitiveness of enterprises. It has been doing so for the past 20 years.
The ranking is derived from statistical data as well as perception or qualitative data obtained from feedback of the private sector through an executive opinion survey.
Rankings are presented in four c ategories: overall scoreboard, population size, wealth and region.
MPC , the Malaysian par tner institute to IMD, handles the collation of data as well as the distribution of
the survey form.
The corporation’s role is to compile the large repository of data that is then analysed by WCC. It then proposes to the government areas that need improvement to improve the country’s ranking.
The top 10 most competitive nations under the survey are the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Denmark and Norway.
The sur vey uses four input factors — economic performance; government efficienc y; business efficiency and infrastructure — to arrive at its conclusions.
There are also 20 sub-factors involved, such as international investment , prices , business egislation , technological infrastructure , healthand environment, domestic economy,
international trade, employment, finance and basic infrastructure, with the centre employing 338 criteria to provide a multifaceted view on the competitiveness of each nation.
Malaysia recorded improvements in international investment, prices, business legislation, technological infr as tr uc ture and health and environment but saw a decline in basic infrastructure, societal framework, international trade, employment, domestic economy and finance.
T h e re p o r t s t a te d that Malaysia needed to continuously strive for long-term competitiveness sustainability to achieve a high-income economy status by 2020.
The challenges facing t h e c o u n t r y i n c l u d e enhancing growth enablers for sustainable economic development; harnessing talent to achieve higher p r o d u c t i v i t y g r o w t h; intensif ying effor ts to r e d u c e u n n e c e s s a r y regulatory burdens and restrictions; curbing higher inflation as a a result of subsidy rationalisations a n d s t r e n g t h e n i n g technological capabilities t o e n h a n c e v a l u e creation.
Br is s aid M alay sia needed to innovate and come up with a new e c o n o m i c m o d e l t o make prosperity more sustainable.
He said the country should find its niche or spark in the developing services sector in a creative way in order for it to be a major competitor in the world economy.
To increase national income and prosperity, the country had no other choice but make improvements in health, education as well as income.
The survey, said Bris, also found that in Malaysia, despite many plans and strategies being put in place, the desired outcomes were not forthcoming.
“The execution part of the plans is not in place, which is one of the ineffectiveness in the system detected.”
However, one plus point for the country is the high level of collaboration and planning between the government and the private sector.
“Leaders can sit down and discuss plans and goals and this is how planning can become a success story.
“Competitive environments are important to create more added value for enterprises, create more jobs, attract more investments and talents and create more revenue.
It is a self-fulfilling cycle as a higher ranking will continue to ensure better investment and better opportunities and thus making the fac tors more conducive towards maintaining a better ranking,” said Bris.
The rankings are useful because they allow nations to benchmark themselves globally and, most importantly, make better decisions towards determining their strategies and setting their goals and targets.
It also helps inves tors and governments look at the crucial numbers when making important decisions.
The report suggests that other countries learn from success stories, such as Malaysia.