Where Has PM Najib Brought Malaysia To?

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

FASCINATED I have been with how people debate in the social media nowadays particularly on the subject matter "Malaysian Politics" involving PM Dato' Sri Najib and his opponents. Today, I came across one really good argument about how Malaysia has fetched (in the eyes of the international observers) vis a vis the premiership of PM Dato' Sri Najib versus his nemesis, Tun Mahathir. I feel compelled to share those valuable arguments to my blog followers so that they can avoid being zombies of fitnah on the social media. For this, credit should be given to Saiful Bahari Baharom, who is the author of the following Facebook status:

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A comment from an FB friend:

Wow! Everybody seems to be an expert here (Facebook), and playing God too. No matter what, you can't deny the progressive developments and the international respect Msia was accorded during Tun M's tenure. So what global recognition have we got now? Corruption, scandals and the 1MDB fiasco.

My (Saiful's) response:

You think time Tun M Malaysia was not criticised by global press for corruption and cronyism? Go and learn to google, my friend.

As for PM Najib's time, several international organisations have rated Malaysia highly in their global surveys. The Global Competitiveness Report 2014 to 2015, released by the World Economic Forum, ranked Malaysia 20th out of 144 economies, up from 24th last year.

The report also placed Malaysia 4th for Financial Market Development and 7th for Goods Market Efficiency.

Bloomberg declared Malaysia the world’s 5th most promising emerging market in 2015, and the Asian Corporate Governance Association has ranked Malaysia in the same league as developed markets such as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

It is noteworthy that in this year’s Baseline Profitability Index, a ranking of investment-attractive destinations by America’s Foreign Policy magazine, Malaysia jumped 5 rungs - from 11th in 2014, to 6th this year. This ranking, in a survey which covered 110 countries across six continents.

Last year, Malaysia rose to 18th out of 140 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.

The World Bank ranked Malaysia as the 18th easiest place to do business out 189 economies in 2015.

And in the IMD’s Yearbook, Malaysia was ranked as the 14th most competitive country out of 61 economies surveyed.

The truth is, as the World Bank regional director for Southeast Asia said last December, and I quote: “The international community continues to have confidence in Malaysia. That's why Malaysia continues to attract interest from businesses - both domestic and foreign."

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* kopihangtuah

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