Government Efficiency: Malaysia Sixth Best In The World, Says PM

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian government's efficiency is improving and rated sixth best in the world in 2007, compared to its eighth placing in year 2000, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
Quoting the World Competitiveness Year Book, released by IMD, a Switzerland-based leading global business school, Abdullah said Malaysia which was measured in the group of countries with a population of 20 million and above, was ranked better than the United Kingdom, Germany, Thailand, Spain, Japan, Russia and France.
"Above us are China, Canada, the USA, India and Taiwan," he said when addressing about 8,000 civil servants at the 8th Civil Servants' Premier Gathering (Mappa) here Monday.
Abdullah said the Malaysian government's efficiency could be seen in the enhancement of its delivery system, including in its public service sector, as a result of the strong commitment of the civil servants to give the best to the people.
Besides that, he said, various efforts were undertaken by the government throughout last year to improve public service delivery, resulting in lesser complaints from the public.
"The efforts in 2007 were the beginning and were very encouraging. The administrators, media and public could feel the positive changes. With that, I like to congratulate the public servants who have worked hard to bring about those changes."
However, Abdullah said, a lot more could be done for public service in this country to be the best in the world.
"If 2007 was the start, 2008 should be the strengthening phase. Maintaining the standards achieved does not denote excellence, but improving the standards and achievements to emerge the top in its class."
The Prime Minister said continuity and enhancement were required of Malaysia to become outstanding because other countries, especially developing countries like China, India and Vietnam, were also not being complacent but relentlessly chasing development and betterment.
"We've heard of the accolades and this gives us satisfaction. But we must continue to strive to do better until we reach first-class standard in public service delivery," he said.
Abdullah also reminded civil servants that a fast and efficient delivery system would have the accompanying benefit of curbing corruption.
"For example, if we are so slow in making a decision, it could encourage bribery to hasten the decision-making. Although this may not be rampant, we don't want it to happen," he said.
Meanwhile, Abdullah commended civil servants who now have the courage to come forward to report to the Anti-Corruption Agency when they are offered bribes.
"This is a good thing and must be practised by all civil servants," he said.
In his message, Abdullah also urged the people not to compare Malaysia with Singapore, which he said was in a different category altogether, including in economy.
"They are grape...and we are apple. How can you compare grape with an apple? We can't," he said, adding that as long as Malaysians instilled the spirit of "Malaysia Boleh" in themselves, anything was possible.
"Don't think about failing, that we cannot do this and that. It's not an option....there's no other option but success, success, success," he said.

tunku : if it's true than we should be proud of malaysia's standing in the world competitiveness but i'm confused as in the chart of this link ,http://www.imd.ch/research/publications/wcy/announcing.cfm it shows malaysia at rank 23.Can someone enlighten me please ?

IMD WORLD COMPETITIVENESS YEARBOOK 2007
the WORLD competitiveness SCOREBOARD 2007
(2006 rankings are in brackets)

http://www.imd.ch/research/publications/wcy/upload/scoreboard.pdf

(1) USA 1
(3) SINGAPORE 2
(2) HONG KONG 3
(9) LUXEMBOURG 4
(5) DENMARK 5
(8) SWITZERLAND 6
(4) ICELAND 7
(15) NETHERLANDS 8
(14) SWEDEN 9
(7) CANADA 10
(6) AUSTRALIA 12
(12) NORWAY 13
(11) IRELAND 14
(18 ) CHINA MAINLAND 15
(25) GERMANY 16
(10) FINLAND 17
(17) TAIWAN 18
(21) NEW ZEALAND 19
(20) UNITED KINGDOM 20
(24) ISRAEL 21
(19) ESTONIA 22
(22) MALAYSIA 23
(16) JAPAN 24
(26) BELGIUM 25
(23) CHILE 26
(27) INDIA 27
(30) FRANCE 28
(32) KOREA 29
(31) SPAIN 30
LITHUANIA 31
(28) CZECH REPUBLIC 32
(29) THAILAND 33
(33) SLOVAK REPUBLIC 34
(35) HUNGARY 35
(36) GREECE 36
(40) JORDAN 37
(34) COLOMBIA 38
(37) PORTUGAL 39
(39) SLOVENIA 40
(41) BULGARIA 41
(48 ) ITALY 42
(46) RUSSIA 43
(49) ROMANIA 44
UKRAINE 46
(45) MEXICO 47
(43) TURKEY 48
(44) BRAZIL 49
(38 ) SOUTH AFRICA 50
(47) ARGENTINA 51
(50) POLAND 52
(51) CROATIA 53
(52) INDONESIA 54
(53) VENEZUELA 55
(13) AUSTRIA 11
(42) PHILIPPINES 45