SHAH ALAM: Malaysia has risen eight places to rank 15th out of 70 economies in the World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR), driven by improvements in government efficiency and efforts to reduce bureaucratic red tape.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar said Malaysia's ranking for 'Government Efficiency' also improved to 14th place from 25th, while its ranking for the 'Bureaucracy' indicator rose to sixth globally.
"The improvement over the past two years has restored investor confidence in the country. This is reflected in approved investments totalling RM218.5 billion in the first half of 2026, an 11.7 per cent increase from the same period last year," he said.
He was speaking at the opening of the 2026 National Conference on Bureaucratic Reform, organised by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) at the Selangor International Trade Centre.
Shamsul Azri said efforts to improve public service delivery were also driven by the enforcement of the Government Service Efficiency Commitment Act on Dec 1 last year.
He said the Act required regulations to be reviewed every three years to address those that were no longer relevant, thereby reducing the burden on the public and businesses.
"Under the Government Service Efficiency Commitment Circular, every agency must reduce its regulatory burden by at least 25 per cent every three years, with bureaucratic reform serving as the main mechanism to achieve this target.
"Its implementation is also supported by the Public Service Performance Index (I-PPA) and the Demerit Evaluation of Performance System (DEEP) for top management to improve leadership and deliver better services to the people," he said.
The commitment was further reinforced through the 2027 Budget, themed 'Reaching for the Sky, Rooted in the Earth', which allocated RM376.8 billion for federal operating expenditure and RM83 billion for development expenditure.
On the next target, Shamsul Azri said Malaysia aimed to rank among the world's top 12 economies in the WCR by 2030.
To achieve this, he urged federal and state government agencies, as well as local authorities, to break down silos and strengthen inter-agency cooperation.
"I want to see more ambitious bureaucratic reform projects, not merely reducing processing times from 30 days to seven days, but processing applications immediately.
"We need to look at processes from the customer's perspective, rather than solely from the internal perspective of the agencies," he said.
He said reducing bureaucratic hurdles and compliance costs was particularly important to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which contributed about 40 per cent of the national economy and employed half of the workforce.
The conference brought together more than 1,000 participants from state governments, local authorities, government agencies and the private sector to discuss efforts to tackle bureaucratic red tape and improve national productivity.
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