Anwar speaks during the Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat, June 25, 2024. – Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR (June 25): The government is confident that its World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR) will improve this year and be reflected in the 2025 report, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in Parliament today.
He said the decline in Malaysia’s competitiveness this year was caused by the situational and unforeseen factors which impacted several key performance indicators.
Among others, they are driven by factors that compared the performances in the year 2023 and 2022.
“The government is confident that Malaysia will recover and improve its World Competitiveness Ranking position later, taking in account all government policy implementation as well as improvement of economic performance this year,” he said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat.
He was responding to Alor Setar MP Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden from PAS who asked the prime minister about the government’s strategy following Malaysia’s slide to 34th placing in the World Competitive Index 2024.
Among the reasons cited for the decline was the high level of subsidies offered to businesses, which exceeded 3 per cent of the gross domestic product based on 2022 data.
“However, the government is committed to implement targeted subsidies in stages.
“In January 2023, the electricity subsidy was implemented and managed to generate savings worth up to RM5 billion by reducing subsidies for large companies and homes with high consumption.
“At the same time, tariffs were not raised for more than 80 per cent local households and businesses,” Anwar, who is also finance minister, said.
He added that the government has also implemented a targeted diesel subsidy and improved diesel subsidy for groups such as the logistics sector.
Anwar noted that another significant reason for Malaysia’s deterioration in the ranking was the weakened ringgit and several key performance indicators compared to the period post-pandemic in 2022.
“For your information, the US dollar has been strong against global currencies.
“However, at this time the ringgit has shown one of the best performances among regional regional currencies,” he said. – Malay Mail