Greetings,

Malaysia has edged up four places from 23rd to 19th position overall
worldwide this year in the global competitiveness survey based on the
Switzerland-based IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2008,
which was released recently.

This year's ranking placed Malaysia ahead of the UK, which was ranked
at No. 21; Japan at No.22; Estonia, No. 23, Thailand at No. 27 and
South Korea at No. 31.

The US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Luxembourg were ranked
in the top five among the 55 economies surveyed.

Malaysia's better ranking was largely based on improvements recorded
in statistical or hard data, although the country also registered
improvement in perception data, Malaysia Productivity Corp (MPC),
Director- General, Datuk Nik Zainiah Nik Abd Rahman said at a seminar
on Malaysia's Competitiveness 2008, in Petaling Jaya, yesterday.

At the same time, Malaysia was ranked seventh among countries with
population of more than 20 million, from eighth position last year;
while among the 20 economies with gross domestic product (GDP) per
capita of less than US$10,000 (RM32,000), the country maintained its
second position for the third consecutive year per NST.

Among the 13 economies in the Asia-pacific, Malaysia retained its
seventh spot for the second consecutive year, ahead of Japan,
Thailand, India, South Korea, Philippines and Indonesia, Datuk Nik
Zainiah added.

Malaysia has shown improvement in ranking for all the four
competitiveness factors- in eighth position for economic performance,
19th for government efficiency, 14th in business efficiency, and 25th
for infrastructure.

The survey also ranked Malaysia among the top five for 11 criteria,
including lowest growth in unit labour cost in the manufacturing
sector; the perception of effective supervision by corporate boards
on the management of companies; exports as a percentage of high-
technology exports; and the current account balance as a percentage
of GDP.

The annual IMD WCY 2008 covers the rankings for 55 economies, based
on 331 criteria. The survey focuses two-thirds on hard data from
international, regional and national sources while one-third is from
IMD's annual WCY Executive Opinion Survey 2008.

One of the main goals of DK Malaysia Development is to promote
investment, business development, manufacturing, trade, and tourism
to Malaysia and DK Malaysia serves as a consultant to Malaysian
government agencies (MITI -Ministry of Trade and Industry Malaysia
and MIDA, Malaysian Industrial Development Authority).

Take care and All the best,

Fred Plimley
President - DK Malaysia Development, LLC
Host/Moderator - Linkedin Malaysia
f.plimley@...
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fredplimley
(951) 243-3602
(909) 214-8783
(206) 338-3191
(+44) 020 7193 7317
Skype ID: fredplimley