Despite improvements in its score, Malaysia dropped one spot to the 24th position in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report that was published on Tuesday (31 October).
In particular, the country recorded a “Distance To Frontier” (DTF) score of 78.43, which is an improvement of 96 percentage points from its previous score. The highest score is 100, while the lowest is zero.
Among the 190 nations evaluated by the World Bank, New Zealand took the top spot with a DTF score of 86.55. This is followed by Singapore (84.57), Denmark (84.06), South Korea (83.92) and Hong Kong (83.44).
The US (82.54) and the United Kingdom (82.22) were ranked sixth and seventh respectively. Completing the top ten are Norway (82.16), Georgia (82.04) and Sweden (81.27).
On the other hand, the lowest scoring countries were Yemen (33), South Sudan (32.86), Venezuela (30.87), Eritrea (22.87) and Somalia (19.98).
The latest World Bank report measures regulations that impact 11 facets of a business. Ten of these were included in this year’s ranking and these affect the ease of doing business. These are starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. It also assessed labour market regulations, but this was excluded in the rankings.
Notably, the highest grade received by Malaysia was for protecting minority investors, where it secured the fourth spot. This is followed by getting electricity (eight) and dealing with construction permits (11).
On the other hand, its lowest score was for doing business where it was ranked 111th.
Nevertheless, the country saw the largest improvement in the area for obtaining credit, paying taxes and safeguarding minority investors.
Image sourced from Arcadis.
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
For the latest property news, trends, resources and expert opinions, visit our Property News section. Home buyers, sellers or property renters looking for Malaysian Properties, may like to visit the New Launches or Project Reviews page.
