Malaysia, Singapore sign agreement to boost digital economies
Malaysia’s tie-up with Singapore to boost the countries’ small and medium enterprise (SMEs) and start-ups sectors can be a blueprint for other Asean nations, according to International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz.
On the Malaysia-Singapore Framework on Cooperation in Digital and Green Economy, the minister said: “Through this collaboration, Malaysia hopes to learn and share best practices that will facilitate talent-building, infrastructure upgrading, and others, whether in the public or private sector.”
He said Malaysia also welcomed collaboration with Singapore on the technical know-how for regulatory requirements for electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles and green economy initiatives such as carbon credit.
“These would include standardisation or industry guidelines, technical requirements, a code of conduct, laws and regulations, as well as capacity-building programmes,” he said at the signing ceremony of the Framework. The signing ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
“This cooperation framework is a joint initiative between the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore to increase bilateral cooperation in the field of the digital economy and green economy,” said Tengku Zafrul.
“This bilateral cooperation in the digital economy and green economy has the potential to drive industrial development in both countries and create more job and business opportunities for Malaysia and Singapore.
“I agree with many of the principles mentioned by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in terms of meaningful economic growth. In fact, from the past, I have always shared with the media that economic growth needs to benefit the people as well, in terms of job opportunities and empowering the people to build a good life, not benefiting big companies only,” he said.
This principle also needs to be applied in any bilateral or multilateral agreement, including the Framework on Cooperation with Singapore in the Green Economy and also the Digital Economy, he added.
“Asean needs strong leadership for the future sustainability of its people. In my opinion, joint cooperation with Singapore in the digital economy and green economy is able to provide such leadership to contribute to the prosperity of Asean in the future,” said Tengku Zafrul.
According to Miti data released recently, Singapore accounted for the largest value of exports of all Asean nations at RM232.57 billion ($54.5 billion) in 2022. This was followed by Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia were the top three export destinations in 2022 for Malaysia, accounting for 78.3% of total exports to Asean. Exports to almost all Asean countries registered a new record high last year.
Malaysia drops points in corruption index
Malaysia has dropped points for the third year in a row in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index 2022 (CPI 2022) score.
In the anti-corruption group’s latest report, Malaysia had a CPI score of 47 for 2022. This means that the country has dropped six points in the annual CPI over the past three years.
In 2019, Malaysia had a CPI score of 53, but this fell to 51 in 2020, and 48 in 2021.
However, Malaysia had improved in terms of ranking out of 180 countries, being ranked 61 for 2022, an improvement from the 62nd position it held in 2021.
In 2020, Malaysia ranked 57, a steep drop from the 51st spot it held in 2019.
With the latest drop in the score, Malaysia now ranks behind Saudi Arabia, Namibia and Mauritius. Singapore is the only Southeast Asian country to make it to the top 10 and was ranked fifth in the world with a score of 83.
However, Transparency International Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan said there should be greater emphasis on the nation’s CPI score rather than its ranking. “Rankings can go up and down but the index score is more crucial to look at,” he said.
