KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — The challenge for Malaysia now is to ensure that efforts to improve public institutions, policies and factors that affect the nation’s competitiveness are undertaken to restore the people’s confidence and trust towards the government.

According to the Economic Outlook 2019 report issued by the Ministry of Finance today, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated that trust promotes growth and economic development by encouraging efficiency of physical capital accumulation.

"Other than that, it also accelerates the diffusion of technology, and improving the well-functioning of legal, political and social institutions.

"Trust in the government is reflected under the first pillar of the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) which refers to the institutional environment where individuals, firms and governments interact to generate wealth,” the report said.

"Based on the GCI 2018, the country ranked 24th out of 140 countries for the first pillar of GCI, trust in the Government.

"However, some indicators require further improvements including the freedom of press (ranking 118), budget transparency (77), incidence of corruption (55) and judicial independence (33),” the report said.

The Economic Outlook 2019, among others also revealed that several areas in the entrepreneurship sector need to be improved by the Government although Malaysia is ranked 58th out of 137 countries in the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) 2018.

"The country is well positioned in the field of innovation, human capital, opportunities for start-ups, risk acceptance as well as networking.

"However, there are areas that need to be improved including start-up skills, technology absorption, product innovation, business growth and risk capital,” said the report.

The report added, to meet business expectations especially among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs, the government is committed to creating a conducive environment by simplifying and introducing consumer-friendly rules.

The Economic Outlook 2019 also revealed that, the government is facing various issues related to the well-being of the people including the rising cost of living in urban areas, malnutrition among urban poor children, lack of connectivity in public transportation, quality of education and healthcare and the lack of affordable housing.

"There is a need to expand and improve the public transport system outside the Klang Valley as well as urban areas in line with the increased emphasis on inclusive growth.

"The government has allocated a significant amount and implemented various measures to strengthen the education system but the outcome has yet to reach its full potential,” the report said.

In the field of public healthcare services, there are still some problems remaining such as long waiting times, congestion in hospitals and rising prices for treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

"The government has implemented various initiatives to address the problem of NCDs such as encouraging the private sector to provide dialysis centres, enhancing healthy lifestyle programs and expanding the use of generic drugs.

"However, NCDs remain one of the major causes of death among Malaysians,” the report added. — Bernama