Malaysia and the The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012
By Masterwordsmith
According to its official website, The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 continues to stand out as one of the world’s most comprehensive and respected assessment of countries’ competitiveness. Produced in collaboration with leading academics and a global network of research institutes, the Report provides users with a comprehensive assessment of their strengths and weaknesses related to national competitiveness using the Global Competitiveness Index as the main methodology.
Apart from providing statistical data, the index also features data from the Executive Opinion Survey carried out by the World Economic Forum. The 2011 Survey captures the perceptions of over 13,000 business leaders from the featured 142 economies.
The full version of the Report can be read online at THIS LINK.
This year, Switzerland tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Singapore overtakes Sweden for second position. Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with Sweden (3rd), Finland (4th), Germany (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Denmark (8th) and the United Kingdom (10th). Japan remains the second-ranked Asian economy at 9th place, despite falling three places since last year.
The statistics show that even though advanced economies have stagnated in competitiveness over the past seven years, the performance of many emerging markets has improved leading to more stable growth and in tandem with the shift in economic activity from advanced to emerging economies. Key findings from the report can be viewed HERE.
The latest Global Competitiveness Report this year shows that Malaysia has improved by five places among 183 countries.
Last year, Malaysia was in the 26th spot but now, it is in the 21st spot having scored an overall 5.08 out of the maximum seven points for “improvements across the board”. Its previous score was 4.88.
In the area of financial market development, Malaysia is also ranked third among the world’s economies – trailing behind Singapore and Hong Kong. In the highly efficient goods market, Malaysia is in 15th place.
In the Asean region, Malaysia has been gauged as the second most competitive economy and sixth among Asia-Pacific economies.
The report also stated that Malaysia’s progress had been particularly noteworthy under the forum’s pillars on institutions and macroeconomics as well as in several measures of market efficiency.
If you scrutinize the report for the section on Malaysia (Section 2.1, page 248), the population of Malaysia is listed as 27.9 million with a GDP of USD238 billion and a per capita GDP of USD 8423.
According to the report, the most problematic factors for doing business in Malaysia include:
