THE government has established a task force aimed at improving the country’s position in the International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) World Competitiveness Ranking.
Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz announced that he will lead the task force alongside Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan, with the goal of placing Malaysia among the top 12 by 2033.
“We are aware that there are several areas in which we need to improve. Some of these are within our control and some are not, but it requires a whole-of-government approach,” the minister said in announcing the ‘report cards’ of the finance and investment, trade and industry ministries today.
The task force plans to present detailed strategies to the Cabinet to enhance the nation’s competitiveness ranking following discussions with relevant agencies. This initiative comes in response to Malaysia’s recent drop in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, where it fell seven places to 34th out of 67 countries.
Moreover, the country also slipped four places to 10th out of 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, marking the first time it ranked below Indonesia and Thailand.
Tengku Zafrul attributed the decline to factors such as the weakened ringgit, government over-expenditure due to the economic impact of the Ukraine-Russia war, and a reduction in high-technology exports.
However, he expressed optimism that these issues would see improvements this year.
In other developments, Tengku Zafrul mentioned that Malaysia has not yet commenced the process of applying to join the BRICS economic bloc.
“For now, not yet. But we are part of a team led by the Foreign Ministry that is looking into this.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim previously indicated Malaysia’s interest in joining BRICS with formal procedures to begin soon. Anwar suggested that Malaysia could become a “partner country” of BRICS before formally joining the bloc.
BRICS, formed in 2006, initially comprised Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011. Recently, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates formally joined the group in January this year.
Furthermore, Tengku Zafrul announced that Malaysia’s total trade for the second quarter of 2024 reached RM1.396 tril, marking an 8.4% year-on-year (yoy) increase. Exports rose by 3.9% to RM731.1 bil, while imports surged by 13.8% to RM664.9 bil.
He also pointed out that domestic and foreign investments in the first quarter of the year were encouraging, with key projects in the manufacturing and services sectors. – July 18, 2024
Main photo credit: AFP
