Country in 24th place in World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2018

Malaysia continues to slip in the World Bank’s rankings for ease of doing business, as some countries continue to make significant progress and a faster pace of reforms.

This year showed Malaysia falling one notch to 24th place out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2018 released yesterday, compared with the 23rd placing last year, despite improvement in the domestic business climate.

Malaysia has been slipping down the global ease-of-doing-business rankings since 2013, when the country achieved its best-ever ranking of sixth globally out of 189 countries.

Commenting on the declining trend of Malaysia’s ease-of-doing-business rankings, economist Lee Heng Guie said: “This underscores a constant review and enhancement of regulatory and compliance hurdles to improve the ease of doing business. Policy clarity and certainty as well as a competitive tax structure are key to investors doing business.

“While the government has undertaken steps to improve the business regulatory environment, the fast-evolving technology changes demand for more streamlining of regulatory platforms for businesses via-government electronic systems for its speed, transparency and efficient delivery,” Lee, the executive director of the Socio Economic Research Centre, told StarBiz.

World Bank’s country manager for Malaysia, Faris Hadad-Zervos, said despite dropping one spot in the annual index this year, the business climate in Malaysia has actually improved.

He noted that the DB 2018 showed high ratings for Malaysia in terms of overall distance to frontier (DTF) score of 78.43, compared with 77.47 last year.

“That’s up by around 1% from last year. This is due to an improvement in Malaysia’s business climate having seen the enactment of three business reforms in the past year,” Hadad-Zervos told reporters during the launch of the World Bank Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs report.

“Malaysia’s global ranking, however, went to the 24th spot due not to actions on its part, but the overall global rankings improvement and other depth and breadth and pace of reforms of other countries,” he explained.

The World Bank Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs report, is the 15th in a series of annual reports measuring regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business.

These included starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency, as well as labour market regulations.

The report covered data collection from

June 2, 2016 to June 1, 2017.

According to the DB 2018, the three notable reforms implemented by Malaysia during the past year were adopted in the areas of Getting Credit, Trading Across Borders and Protecting Minority Investors.

Commenting on Malaysia’s ranking in DB 2018, the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) said in a statement: “The drop in the ranking was a result of reforms undertaken by the United Arab Emirates, translating to an increase in the DTF score of 1.87 and enabling it to leapfrog from 26th last year to a ranking of 21st this year.

“Out of the top 25 economies ranked, only Malaysia and 10 others recorded improvement in DTF scores,” Miti pointed out.

The DTF score measures the distance of each economy to the “frontier economy”, which refers to the best-performing country on each of the indicators across all countries involved since 2005. An economy’s distance is reflected on a scale of zero to 100.

“The 78.43 overall score recorded by Malaysia this year means our economy is 21.57 percentage points away from the frontier,” Miti said.

Overall, New Zealand maintained its position as the most business-friendly country in the world, ahead of Singapore and Denmark, which also maintained their respective positions in the top-three rankings this year.

South Korea moved up one notch to the fourth place this year, while Hong Kong fell one notch to fifth place.

Within Asean, Malaysia was ranked second after Singapore, ahead of Thailand (26th), Brunei (56th) and Indonesia (72nd) this year.

Malaysia ranked fourth in Asia, after Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan (15th).

In terms of overall DTF scores, the countries that saw the biggest year-on-year improvements in this year were Brunei (9%), India (8.2%), Thailand (7.9%), Vietnam (4.3%) and Indonesia (3.5%). This compared to the improvement of 1.2% by Malaysia.

The World Bank noted that over the past 15 years, Malaysia had implemented 23 reforms improving business regulations, much higher than the per country average of 15 reforms in the East Asia and Pacific region.

“As the government continues to strengthen the business regulatory framework, it is important to focus on the areas where small and medium firms face difficulties, such as starting a business,” Hadad-Zervos said.

According to the World Bank, Malaysia has an opportunity for further improvements in the area of Starting a Business, despite six reforms carried out in this area over the last 15 years. Paying Taxes is another area where there is room for improvement, it added. 

Source: The Star

Others catch up as Malaysia slips

Malaysia slipped one notch to rank 24th in the World Bank’s latest Doing Business Report, down from the 23rd place last year.

Despite the slight decline, Malaysia actually recorded an improvement by 0.96 in terms of overall distance to frontier (DTF) score, from 77.47 in the previous year to 78.43 this year.

The DTF measure shows the distance of each economy to the frontier which represents the best performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies in the Doing Business sample since 2005.

World Bank’s country manager in Malaysia Faris Hadad-Zervos said Malaysia has retained its spot among the world’s top 25 economies on the Doing Business measures.

“As the government continues to strengthen the business regulatory framework, it is important to focus on the areas where small and medium firms face difficulties, such as starting a business,” he told a news conference in conjunction with the launch of the report today.

Source: The Edge Markets

Malaysia slips one notch to 24th in World Bank’s Doing Business Report

Source: NST

Malaysia ranks 7th in number of family-owned firms

Source: NST

Malaysia takes 23rd spot in global report

After suffering a steep fall in last year’s ranking, Malaysia moved up two spots to the 23rd place out of 137 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2017-2018 Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) released today.

The country was in the 18th place in 2015, but fell seven spots to 25th in 2016.

In a statement, International Trade and Industry Minister (Miti) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the latest ranking affirms the strength of Malaysia’s macroeconomic fundamentals and that its economic policies are on the right track. “Our exports are doing well and we continue to receive healthy flows of foreign direct investments,” said Mustapa.

In the latest ranking, Miti said Malaysia overtook Ireland and Qatar and remained ahead of economies such as South Korea, China and Estonia.

“We also maintained our position as the most competitive among emerging economies in East Asia and the Pacific region, as well as among 20 economies in the transition stage from efficiency-driven to innovation-driven. It is important to note that all the countries ranked above Malaysia are developed and of high-income economies,” said Miti.

At the 23rd place, Malaysia was overtaken by Australia, Taiwan, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and the US, among others, and obtained a performance score of 5.17 out of seven, up from 5.16 last year. Overall, the report ranked Switzerland as the most competitive economy in the world for the ninth consecutive year, ahead of the US and Singapore, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.

The GCR is an annual report published by the WEF based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) that combines 114 indicators integrating both macroeconomic and microeconomic aspects of competitiveness. These indicators are grouped into 12 pillars, comprising institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

Malaysia was among the top 50 countries in each of the 12 pillars, despite declining in six of them. It performed most strongly in the financial market development, where it was placed 16th, and improved the most in the health and primary education pillar, advancing 14 positions to 30th.

Mustapa said the country’s competitiveness can only be improved if there is coordinated actions among the government, private sector and civil society.

He said continuous efforts are being made by the Malaysia Productivity Corp and the Civil Service Delivery Unit, together with relevant parties, to ensure the country’s achievements are accurately reflected in both the soft and hard data compiled to measure competitiveness.

“Looking ahead, while the improvement should be welcomed, we must not get too overwhelmed and lose sight of future challenges. The landscape is rapidly changing and thus we must ramp-up our efforts in fostering greater public-private partnership collaborations and being in the forefront of future trends including Industry 4.0,” said Mustapa.

Source: The Edge Markets

Malaysia up 2 spots to 23rd in global competitiveness ranking

Source: NST

Malaysia ranked 2nd in S-E Asia

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) says it has accomplished its mission by being listed in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2018 Top 1,000 list.

In congratulating the university, MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said UTAR was ranked in the 501-600 band on the list, above several Malaysian institutions.

“We hope this joyful achievement can be shared with more people.

“We cannot forget MCA’s support for the past 16 years,” said Dr Wee, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, on his Facebook post.

UTAR president Prof Datuk Dr Chuah Hean Teik said the university – set up by MCA in 2002 – is humbled by the ranking.

“We will work even harder in teaching and research, as well as international and industrial collaboration, because we aim to provide quality higher education to as many youths as possible,” he said.

UTAR is one of eight Malaysian universities to make this year’s THE World University Rankings 2018 Top 1,000 list, which was released on Tuesday.

Universiti Malaya joins the Top 400 as a new entrant (351-400 band) on the list.

UTAR and Universiti Tenaga Nasional also join the table for the first time, in the 501-600 and 801-1000 bands, respectively.

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Petronas are ranked in the 601st to 800th band.

Malaysia is one of the leading emerging university nations in Asia, said Times Higher Education Global Rankings editorial director Phil Baty.

“It has one of the world’s fastest growth rates in research paper outputs, PhD training capacity has increased, and it has the wealth needed to invest in the higher education sector,” he said.

THE’s World University Rankings are global performance tables that judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Source: The Star 

Ranking will drive us to work harder, says UTAR

Seven Malaysian universities have been listed in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings Top 50 Under 50 2018.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) was the highest ranked institution at the 15th spot.

The 44-year-old varsity was at No. 17 last year.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is in 16th place, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at 21st and Universiti Sains Malaysia at 23rd.

“All our research universities are not only in the top 50 but in the top 23 under the QS World University Rankings Top 50 Under 50,” he told reporters after launching the Sports Leadership Transformation Programme at UPM yesterday.

The other universities to make the list – released on June 8 – are Universiti Teknologi Petronas (91100), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) (101-150) and International Islamic University Malaysia (101150).

Except for Universiti Malaya, all the other universities in Malaysia are below the age of 50.

Idris congratulated UUM for debuting in the rankings this year.

“The 33-year-old university’s position in the 101-150 band shows that its focus to be a niche university, which focuses on management and social sciences, does not prevent it from competing and shining among other institutions,” he said.

He said UUM became an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) accredited institution last year, adding that this has contributed to its ranking position.

AACSB is the hallmark of excellence in business education, and has been earned by less than 5% of the world’s business programmes.

UUM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak thanked the UUM family “who is committed to the success of the university’s agenda”.

“This achievement shows that UUM’s strategic plan started in 2010 is bearing results,” he said.

He also hoped that staff and students would continue to carry out the university’s agenda so that it could compete with other renowned international universities.

UPM vice-chancellor Prof Datin Paduka Aini Ideris said the university had always focused on the fundamentals of teaching, research and services.

“We work hard to ensure quality education, quality research that benefits the community and produces all-rounder graduates with holistic and entrepreneurial skills,” she said.

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore tops the list this year followed by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology.

Source : The Star 

Seven Malaysian varsities make it to QS world ranking

Source : NST

Step up transformation efforts

Source : NST

Malaysia favourite among China luxury travellers

Research universities’ hard work pays off with significant jump in global ranking

Having improved their ranking, the country’s five research universities have made it to the top 1% in the world out of 26,000, with its oldest university, Universiti Malaya (UM) on the verge of being among the world’s top 100.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said UM, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) generated more than RM6.18bil in research revenue between 2007 and 2016.

“This is a 55.3% return on research investment from the Government’s initial investment of RM3.98bil,” he said, adding that most of the varsities were also celebrating their 10th anniversary as a research university.

UM rose by 19 places to the 114th position in the QS World University Rankings 2018.

Idris said UM had consistently improved its rankings since 2013, and it could be in the top 100 universities worldwide in a year.

“In the span of four years, UPM has moved up 182 places to 229,” he said, adding that this was an average of 45 ranks every year.

UKM rose to 230, their highest jump, while UTM moved up to 253 and USM ranked 264, he added.

UKM’s jump, he said, showed the potential for the young university to “soar upwards”. Higher Education Ministry director-general Datin Paduka Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir said the strength of these universities lay in their lecturers and researchers, who greatly improved their academic reputation through high-impact research, publications and citations.

UM deputy vice-chancellor (academic and international) Prof Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud said their hard work had paid off.

However, he added, it would not be easy to enter the top 100 as competition would become stiffer the higher they rose in the international rankings.

UPM vice-chancellor Prof Datin Paduka Aini Ideris said they had achieved the highest score among local universities for the international student indicator besides improving in their academic reputation, employer reputation and faculty-to-students ratio.

She said the varsity planned to increase its international visibility in order to make it to the top 200 by 2020.

USM vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail said their success was due to “co-learning” and working together with the other research universities.

According to UKM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, their jump in the rankings would drive UKM to further improve its reputation.

Source : The Star 

UM leads local varsities into top 1% worldwide

Source : NST

Five research varsities move a notch up

Source : NST

KL now cheaper for expatriates

Source : NST

Malaysia remains in top 25 list

Source : NST

Malaysia 9th preferred destination for education

Source : NST

Malaysia is Top Muslim Travel Spot

Kuala Lum­pur has been ranked among the top cities with the best integrated development in South-East Asia, second only to Singapore.

The study by Dr Mario Arturio Ruiz Estrada, a senior research fellow at Universiti Malaya, ranked Kuala Lumpur higher in social and political dimensions compared to Singapore.

“Singapore portrays itself as a developed nation but many do not realise its social and political weaknesses. For example, how many political parties are there in Singapore?

“You can’t see big opposition parties like DAP and PAS contesting in the general election there. Here, you are allowed to protest on the streets,” said Dr Ruiz Estrada at a recent seminar orga­nised by UM’s Centre for Poverty and Development Studies (CPDS).

The study was part of an index which he was working on called the integrated gross city internal product (IGCIP).

Dr Ruiz Estrada explained that IGCIP was a more holistic measure of a city’s socio-economic performance compared to that of the Gross Domestic Product.

“The GDP does not tell you the share of wealth among a country’s citizens. And it is impossible to perfectly calculate the GDP.

“As such, there needs to be an index which can capture the social aspects, including the welfare of the people,” he added.

Dr Ruiz Estrada said the IGCIP was divided into four dimensions – social, politics, technology and the economy.

Malaysia rated 0.50 on the IGCIP.

This made it above Bangkok (0.39), Jakarta (0.29) and Manila (0.27) but below that of Singapore (0.59).

He added that socially, Singa­pore also faced inequality in terms of wealth.

Citing Credit Suisse, Dr Ruiz Estrada said 73% of Singapore’s wealth was owned by the wealthiest 20% of its population, which he described as “the elites”.

Dr Ruiz Estrada, who has been working in Malaysia for the past 16 years, said the study was not meant to criticise any country but to identify areas which could be improved for the welfare of its citizens.

“It is to tell you where the problems lie and how they can be addressed using policies,” he said in an interview after the seminar.

In Malaysia’s case, Dr Ruiz Estrada said the country could improve on its social and political development.

The study, which covers 100 cities, is expected to be published in October after a three-year effort by Dr Ruiz Estrada.

KL ranked among top cities

International Living, in its Annual Global Retirement Index 2017, honoured Malaysia for the third consecutive year by singling out the country as having the “Best Healthcare in the World”

This is indeed a praiseworthy international recognition, as Malaysia tops a list of 24 countries. The ranking is based on:The price of medical proceduresFacilities availableQuality/number of hospitalsQuality/number of trained doctorsAffordability of care

The 24 countries in the listing by International Living are: – 1. Malaysia 2. Mexico 3. Panama 4. Ecuador 5. Costa Rica 6. Columbia 7. Spain 8. Nicaragua 9. Portugal 10. Malta 11. Honduras 12. Thailand 13. Italy 14. Peru 15. Belize 16. France 17. Cambodia 18. Bolivia 19. Philippines 20. Dominican Rep. 21. Ireland 22. Guatemala 23. Uruguay 24. Vietnam

This accomplishment is testament to Malaysia’s well-developed healthcare system which is highly accessible, has competitively affordable rates, and is of world-class quality.

“The government, through the Ministry of Health, ensures stringent and rigorously-observed regulations are put in place to safeguard impeccable standards of quality, safety and ethics in Malaysian healthcare services as a whole, whilst also ensuring that healthcare in Malaysia remains accessible to anyone who needs it,” said Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam when commenting on the index.

“The Ministry is humbled and inspired by this recognition and shall continue our commitment in providing the best quality healthcare for our patients,” he added. –BERNAMA641 reads

Source: NSTP 

International Living rates M’sia’s healthcare system as world’s best

RAM Rating Services Bhd has reaffirmed Malaysia’s respective global and Asean-scale sovereign ratings of ‘A2/stable’ and ‘AAA/stable’, respectivly, reflecting the countrys resilient economic growth and the Government’s fiscal consolidation efforts.

In a statement on Wednesday, RAM said, although Malaysia’s external-resilience parameters had worsened amid a sustained fall in commodity prices and the country’s reduced foreign exchange reserves, they were still supportive of its current ratings.

The agency said Malaysia’s ratings remained constrained by high government and household debt levels.

Its head of sovereign ratings, Esther Lai, said the country’s economy was forecast to expand at a marginally faster pace of 4.5% in 2017 from an estimated 4.2% in 2016, underpinned by growing private domestic demand and a diversified economic structure.

“This pace of economic activity remains resilient despite various growth headwinds, which include the increase in prices of various consumer goods, persistent depreciation of the ringgit and heightened global risk aversion to emerging markets,” she said.

Meanwhile, RAM said, Malaysia’s current account surplus was expected to remain in surplus at 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 (2016 estimate: 1.3%), attributable to sustained demand for capital imports and low oil prices.

On the Federal Government debt, RAM said, it was expected to decline to 52% of GDP in 2017 from 53.4% in September 2016 due to fiscal consolidation efforts and the transfer of debt off balance sheet.

The agency said the adjusted government debt, which included debt (both guaranteed and non-guaranteed) issued by strategic public sector entities, was estimated to reach 66.4% of GDP by end-2016.

“This level is higher than that of regional peers and is a key moderating factor of the ratings.

“That said, the debt structure remains favourable, as most of the papers are denominated in ringgit (96.5%) and are generally long-tenured,” it said.

It said amid the still volatile external conditions, Malaysia’s ratings could be revised downwards if its fiscal position deteriorated as a result of rising on and off balance sheet debt.

“Similarly, the ratings could face pressure if there is a persistent current account deficit or if there are significant deviations in the country’s economic or fiscal reforms,” it said. – Bernama

Source : The Star

RAM reaffirms Malaysia’s global, Asean-scale sovereign ratings