Competitiveness of Malaysia: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to study the competitiveness of Malaysia in comparison with some countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The study analysed the competitiveness of Malaysia in terms of four parameters viz. Global competitive index ranking; Total, labour and capital productivity; Foreign direct investment inflows, and Trade competitiveness in terms of the cost of production. It is found that the domestic cost of production of exports of Malaysia has become competitive in 2007 and 2009. The study shows that Malaysia’s competitiveness has improved especially in the later part of 2000. There is a need to improve the competitiveness of Malaysia by focusing on research and innovation which can be achieved through collaboration of research institutions and industry.   Keywords: Malaysia, competitiveness, productivity, mergers and acquisition, price index. JEL classifi cations: F10, F13