Malaysia Ranked Region’s Top Emerging Economy

The World Economic Forum has named Malaysia as the region’s top emerging economy in its Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018.

The report listed Malaysia as 23rd out of 137 countries in Global Competitiveness Index, improving the nation’s ranking from 25th last year, ahead of countries such as China, which was ranked 27th. Malaysia took second spot among nine ASEAN countries with Thailand ranked at (32), Indonesia (36), Brunei Darussalam (46), Vietnam (55), Philippines (56), Cambodia (94) and Laos (98), NSTonline reported.

WEF has been measuring competitiveness among countries since 1979. The annual report measures national competitiveness, which is defined as “the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity”. The study used 70% survey data from the United Nations and 30% data from 137 countries, and tracks the performance of the 137 countries on 12 pillars of competitiveness via the Global Competitiveness Index.

Competitiveness is increasingly interconnected with sustainability. Every nation, region and city will only be truly competitive and able to thrive if sustainability is taken into account. Beyond environmental issues, sustainability also pertains to economic performance, the capacity to attract and retain talent, and the possibility of life in the local and global scales. Bridging growth, competitiveness and sustainability will depend on new concepts, technologies and business models. In achieving this, the solution will increasingly depend on innovation.

In view of the marked importance of innovation, the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, a global network of over 50 organizations that share the principles to enhance regional, national and global prosperity, and the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology, a government agency that serves to advance competency in high technology towards sustainable development, are organizing the fourth installment of the Global Innovation Summit.

The GIS is held annually to convene global leaders of business, government, academia, civil society and global think tanks to assess the state of competitiveness and enhance innovation capacity worldwide.

Kuala Lumpur will play host to this year’s summit on Nov. 29 until Dec. 1, with the theme “The Sustainable Future of Production, Consumption and Work”. This is the first time GIS convenes in South East Asia with the previous ones held in Canada (2014), Saudi Arabia (2015) and Britain (2016).

Production, manufacturing, distribution, consumption and post-consumption processing (recycling) shall dramatically evolve in the years to come. Movement of resources, materials and goods will be digitalized. The manner of work too shall be significantly changed with the rising of automation, artificial intelligence and adoption of new processes.