Guan Eng: Drop in competitiveness ranking warning of govt's failure

DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng said Malaysia’s fall in the 2022 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Ranking by seven places from last year is a “clear warning” that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration has failed.

Malaysia had dropped to the 32nd spot this year from the 25th position last year in this year’s IMD ranking, which is a comprehensive annual report and worldwide reference point on the competitiveness of countries.

“The drop in Malaysia’s competitiveness reinforces the need to heed warnings of the lack of governance, competency, certainty, consistency and clarity to replace prevailing policy complacency, confusion and flip-flops,” Lim said in a statement today.

He said Malaysia’s performance in the ranking this year does not bode well for the country’s economy.

This is especially since Malaysia is already facing a multitude of other problems, he said, such as soaring prices, high cost of living, rising corruption, acute labour shortages, weakening ringgit, government red tape, traffic jams and communications congestion.

Lim also pointed out that the ringgit has dipped to record lows against the US and Singapore dollar, even though the current high oil prices and soaring commodity prices especially for oil palm should be boosting our currency.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob

Wake up

Urging the government to “wake up”, Lim said they should establish a price stabilisation fund and a buffer stockpile of essential commodities to moderate price escalations and fluctuations.

At the same time, he said there should not be increased red tape for the abolition of food import APs as that will slow down the processing time.

Subsidies should also be promptly disbursed, instead of being delayed like the chicken meat subsidies where out of the RM730 million approved by the Malaysian Agriculture Food Industries (Mafi), only RM50 million was paid at the end of May, Lim said.

“The government should stop being in the denial syndrome by claiming that inflation is under control at 2.3 percent when this is due to controlled prices.

“A more accurate reflection is by looking at the Producer Price Index which was at 11 percent in April.

“The prime minister should direct his ministers to go down to the ground to get a realistic assessment by visiting markets instead of going for overseas trips,” he added. - Mkini