KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 ― Malaysia is currently ranked at 32nd place out of 127 countries for the 2017 International Property Rights Index (IPRI), a drop of six spots compared to last year.
Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said Malaysia’s latest score was disconcerting as it is now “clustered” among countries like Rwanda and Panama.
Malaysia also ranked seventh out of 19 in the Asian and Oceania regions.
“In fact among all countries which were evaluated, Malaysia is one of the only three countries whose sub-indices scores actually decreased,” he said in a statement.
The overall score for Malaysia in the ranking decreased to 6.61 out of 10.
For the legal and political environment score, Wan Saiful pointed that the country saw a decreased scored of 5.81; physical property rights score decreased to 7.59; and intellectual property rights score decreased to 6.43.
“As intellectual and physical property rights ensure that businesses have stability, which is important for long term growth, this is a worrying development.
“This sends a clear need for consistent and sustained commitment to ensuring the strengthening of property right protections,” he said.
This year’s IPRI, however, saw world property rights average increase by 3.45 per cent to 5.63 per cent, with New Zealand emerging top in the list with 8.63 points.
Singapore and Japan were the only two Asian countries to be in the top ten category, earning an IPRI of 8.36 and 8.32 respectively.
