M'sia moves up to 23rd spot in Global Competitiveness Report

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has improved its ranking from 25th last year to 23rd out of 137 countries in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2017-2018.
According to the report unveiled at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday, Malaysia also remains the most competitive economy among developing countries in Asia.
Malaysia’s performance improved from 5.16 last year to 5.17 out of a maximum of score of 7.00.
The latest ranking also revealed that Malaysia has overtaken Ireland and Qatar, while remaining ahead of economies such as South Korea, Iceland, China and Estonia.
Meanwhile, Switzerland retained its position as the top performing country in the GCR by scoring 5.86 in this year’s index.
Singapore slipped from second place last year to third this year after its score dropped from 5.72 last year to 5.73 this year.
The United States managed to clinch the second spot after improving its score from 5.70 last year to 5.85 this year.
In a statement yesterday, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the report highlighted three main challenges confronting the global economy – financial vulnerabilities which pose a threat to competitiveness and the economy; ability to spread the benefits of innovation inclusively and labor market flexibility; and worker protection are needed for competitiveness and shared prosperity.
“We will continue to adopt sound economic policies.
“Meanwhile, we also hope to do well in our rankings with continuous improvement in soft and hard infrastructure,” Mustapa said.
The GCR is an annual report published by the WEF based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) that combines 114 indicators that integrate both macro and micro economic 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.
The GCI is based on statistical data from internationally recognised organisations for 30% or 34 indicators.
For the rest of the 80 indicators, qualitative assessments were made based on the WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey.