My Comment on IMD 2011 World Competitiveness Ranking - Part 3
IMD analyze the countries based on four main criteria namely Economic Performance, Government Efficiency, Business Efficiency and Infrastructure..
Among the four criteria above. Malaysia ranking in Infrastructure are most steady and consistent but lowest among the four criteria:
2011 2010 2009
US 1 1 1
Sweden 2 2 2
Denmark 3 5 6
Switzerland 4 3 4
Finland 5 6 3
Canada 6 4 7
Germany 7 8 9
Norway 8 7 10
Iceland 9 9
Singapore 10 11 8
Japan 11 13 5
Netherlands 12 12 11
Austria 13 10 13
Australia 14 18 12
Israel 15 16 18
Taiwan 16 17 23
UK 17 15 16
France 18 14 14
Belgium 19 19 15
Korea 20 20 20
Hong Kong 21 23 19
Luxembourg 22 21 17
New Zealand 23 22 21
Iceland 24 24 22
Portugal 25 29 24
Spain 26 28 31
Malaysia 27 26 25
US top in Infrastructure, and Sweden second for 3 consecutive year. Sweden ranked no 4 this year from 6 previous year in IMD 2011 Competitiveness ranking
Malaysia consistently ranked around 25 to 27 in a dropping trend
If Malaysia want to improve in Competitiveness ranking. Improvement in Infrastructure category have the highest chance to improve it overall ranking as Malaysia ranking in Infrastructure remain consistent even Malaysia IMD Competitiveness ranking moving up and down in the last 3 years.
Among all the country. All Nordic Model countries or Scandinavia ranked within top 10 of infrastructure ranking. This is similar to welfare state debated heavily recently among ruling party and opposition PAS.
However, Nordic model are high tax country. Sweden (2) are the highest tax rate country in the world. Ikea, a Swedish company, move to Denmark initially and later to Switzerland due to high tax rate.
US (1) ranked first under Infrastructure category but have more competitive tax rate compare to Nordic model country. Among the country within top 10 under Infrastructure. Singapore, the only aisa country. consistently ranked within top 10 ranking with much lower tax rate than US and other western countries.
I feel it is a bit difficult to model against Sweden if PAS or Pakatan Raykay want to implement welfare state especially it high tax rate. Despite I have advocate Malaysia to follow Sweden, but not on the tax rate. Sweden company like Sony Erricson, Electrolux also not the most competitive company in the world. However, Sweden are one of the countries that invest most in R&D in terms of percentage of GDP.
Furthermore, Sweden ranked either as the first or second country publishing the highest number of scientific publications in the fields of medical science, natural science and engineering in 2001. Sweden was world-leading in medical science and second only to Switzerland in natural science and engineering in terms of the number of publications per capita.
However, there is more information and publication that able to obtian on Finland then Sweden. Thus, it is far more easy to model against Finland than Sweden. Finland has high number of NGO and active civic society.However, in Malaysia, NGO are used to push up water tariff. Malaysia can't rank high in infrastructure if utility cost are high.
Further, Finland company like Nokia are more competitive than Sweden Sony Erricson. Further, Finland have more technology innovation like Linux,email and recently Angry Bird game etc.
However, Nordic Model countries have strong labour Union, which is bad on economic base on history in UK. UK in reccession under ruling Labour Party until take over by Margaret Thatcher Conservative Party. However, UK has loss it competitiveness to Germany. Thus, both BN and Pakatan Rakyat in Malaysia should learn from this experience.
In Finland , Education is compulsory between the ages of 7 and 16 . Tertiary education is free and living expenses are to a large extent financed by the government through student benefits. If Education is free, then, the recent Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship mess can be avoided.
Last year, Malaysia ranked 10th in IMD Competitiveness ranking in 2010 and Norway ranked 9th. Sadly, Non of the private sector nor GLC HQ model again DIGI HQ D'House . Digi are only one of successful company from Norway in Malaysia. However, it is undeniable that Malaysia working cultural a bit difficult to change to D'House Model.
Base on the above analysis. I feel Malaysia can model against Finland and Singapore on Infrastructure
Related Post:
Lim Kit Siang : Why do Finland’s schools get the best results?
Randon Shots : Finland...Where Less Is More
Part 2: Economic Performance
Next Part 4: Business Efficiency
