Ease of Doing Business and Corruption

Ease of Doing Business Ranking –In 2020, Malaysia ranked 12th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, beating 178 other countries and cementing itself as one of the most conducive places on earth to do business. As can be seen in the chart below, Malaysia outperformed all other ASEAN emerging markets in this metric and, in doing so, stamped itself as one of the primary contenders for the attention of foreign investors. With competition heating up between the region’s developing nations, the ease of doing business in Malaysia may give it a leg up in securing investor confidence.

IPRI Ranking – Malaysia ranked 30th out of the 129 countries that were included in the Intellectual Property Rights Index.

Perceived Transparency Ranking – Malaysia has historically been considered among the more transparent Asian countries, and this air of transparency has remained in the nation. In 2020, Malaysia ranked 57th in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perceptions Index (GCPI) and, thus, branded itself as one of the least corrupt countries in Asia and the 3rd most transparent country in ASEAN. While this bodes well for the federation in its efforts to attract foreign investment, it also leaves room for improvement because Malaysia is lagging behind comparable Asian economies like Japan and South Korea in this regard. It is important to note, however, that Malaysia seems to have already started on this journey of bettering itself, having consistently improved its GCPI ranking since 2017. Given that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s top priority is to stamp out corruption, particularly in the public sector, Malaysia’ prospects – in terms of transparency – seem bright.

https://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/country/malaysia#:~:text=Malaysia’s%20IPRI%20score%20increased%20by,as%20Upper%20middle%20income%20country. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/table/mys

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