PETALING JAYA: The World Bank’s International Finance Corp (IFC) has ranked Malaysia 18th out of 189 other countries in terms of conducting business.
In the 2015 IFC World Bank Doing Business Report, Malaysia was placed ahead of Taiwan, Switzerland, Thailand, the Netherlands and Japan. It ranked second in Asean and fourth in Asia after Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.
In a statement, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said this reaffirmed the country’s consistently competitive performance globally.
Based on the report, Malaysia made improvements in five indicators, namely, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, and resolving insolvency.
Mustapa said the improvements reflected the Government’s initiatives through the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), as well as the work undertaken by The Special Task Force to Facilitate Business Malaysia or Pemudah.
He added that the initiatives by the ETP, GTP and Pemudah are inclusive efforts by both the public and private sectors to identify and resolve operational inefficiencies and review procedures and regulations.
Among the improvements are the establishment of the New Civil Court in the Subordinate Court to allow cases registered to be disposed within nine months and for easy monitoring by managing judges, as well as the setting up of the Regulatory Impact Statement Portal, which serves as a repository and reference source for all regulators.
The OSC 3.0, a system that incorporates international good practices for regulating procedures and regulation for the issuance of permits and licences by the local authorities, has also been implemented.
