Malaysia Remains A Competitive World Economic Player

Still  not good enough, eh?

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 2016 : Malaysia maintained its top 20 position among 61 global economies in the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2016 published by the World Competitiveness Centre of the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

However, the country fell five spots to 19th from 14th last year, due to the fall in commodity prices, a strong dollar and the deterioration of balance sheet in both the private and public sectors, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed in a statement.

The rankings were assessed for 61 countries this year as compared to 60 last year. The top 20 countries were:

RANKING SCORE

1) Hong Kong (100.00)

2) Switzerland (98.02)

3) USA (97.88)

4) Singapore (97.65)

5) Sweden (92.35)

6) Denmark (91.76)

7) Ireland (91.54)

8) Netherlands (91.32)

9) Norway (90.05)

10)Canada (90.05)

11)Luxembourg (90.02)

12)Germany (88.57)

13)Qatar (86.72)

14)Taiwan (86.37)

15)UAE (86.07)

16)New Zealand (85.61)

17)Australia (84.27)

18)United Kingdom (83.34)

19)Malaysia (83.05)

20)Finland (82.04)

Read more HERE

Waste Not, Want Not

Something most Malaysians don't seem to believe in.

The Mole, quoting syndicated news, reported this.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 2016 : Malaysia’s food waste statistics have never been more shocking: daily, households churn out some 3,000 metric tonnes of leftover food that is essentially untouched and still edible and this amount is sufficient to feed two million hungry people.

On the whole, all types of food waste make up about 40 per cent, or 15,000 metric tonnes, of household waste in Malaysia daily.

These figures are based on research carried out by Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp) in 2015.

SWCorp Federal Territory director Hazilah Gumri said its study also found that a household of five spent an average of RM900 a month on food and that a quarter of that food was wasted during preparation, cooking and usage.

“This means that about RM225 (literally) goes into the dustbin every month, which works out to RM2,700 a year,” she said when presenting a paper titled “How Consumers Can Benefit From Reducing Food Waste” at the MYSaveFood forum recently.

The one-day forum was organised by the MYSaveFood secretariat under the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and opened by Deputy Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Nogeh Gumbek.

Hazilah said while 80 per cent of the food waste was considered “unavoidable”, 20 per cent was “avoidable”.

SWCorp oversees the solid waste management system in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor.

The rest of the report HERE.

Sabotage in Malaysian Immigration System (myIMMs)

I think this problem  is bigger than presented in the Auditor-General's Report .

And it stinks.

PUTRAJAYA (May 24 2016) : A taskforce has been formed to probe into a possible element of sabotage in the enforcement of the Malaysian Immigration System (myIMMs). 

Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim said he will be personally leading the investigation, adding that the authorities are in the midst of gathering evidence including relevant documents. 

He was speaking after the townhall session on the 1st series of the Auditor-General's 2015 Report today.

 Immigration director-general Datuk Sakib Kusmi said investigations were being conducted to determine the reasons for the weaknesses in the enforcement of the myIMMs. 

"We are carrying out investigations to determine those who are involved. We believe not only Immigration officers but also outsiders including vendors and foreigners were involved," he told reporters.

 Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had on Monday said the government believed that the enforcement of the myIMMs had been sabotaged. 

Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said, several names had been identified and would be announced by him and the police. 

The Auditor-General's Report 2015 Series 1 on May 18 stated that the myIMMs, developed to support the main operation of the Immigration Department, was unsatisfactory and had affected the department’s objective. 

The report said the myIMMs biometric facility worth RM10.3 million was paid and supplied for, but was neither installed nor used at the entrance gates to screen and identify foreigners as well as Malaysians. -NST