KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia has moved up to 15th place in the World Bank Group's Doing Business 2019, from 24th in the previous year, after the country carried out six business reforms in the past year.
World Bank said in a statement Thursday that the acceleration in reforms covered the doing business areas of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, trading across borders and resolving insolvency, helped Malaysia advance nine places to a global rank of 15.
"The country's consistent effort to adopt international regulatory best practices has made this achievement possible. We are committed to sustaining our support for this important reform agenda going forward with a focus on areas where entrepreneurs still experience difficulties," said Mara Warwick, World Bank Group Country Director for Malaysia.
According to the statement, the reforms implemented in the past year included the reducing time for registering a new business from 23.5 days to 13.5 days, following an introduction of an online tax registration system.
Besides, the process of obtaining a building permit was streamlined, reducing the time needed to complete all required procedures to build a warehouse from 78 days to 54 days.
Getting electricity was also made easier by eliminating the site visit for new commercial electricity connections, reducing by seven days the time that it takes for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection and supply.
Meanwhile, an online single window platform to carry out property searches was implemented, making it easier to transfer property.
In terms of trading across borders, the time to complete border compliance requirements has been reduced from 45 to 28 hours for exporting, and from 69 to 36 hours for importing, after the country introduced electronic forms, enhanced its risk-based inspection system, made importing and exporting easier by improving infrastructure and the port operation system at Port Klang for the second consecutive year.
In a separate statement, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking said that a special task force has been set up to initiate and drive regulatory reforms and improvements within the doing business indicator areas in the country.
"The government will undertake more reform initiatives to further enhance the ease of doing business of a new Malaysia that prospers through business competitiveness," he added.
