The Economic Planning Unit in collaboration with the World Bank is conducting a productivity and investment climate survey to explore the level of Malaysian companies' competitiveness, reported bernama. Besides focusing on the investment climate and growth, it also aims to identify key constraints to competitiveness as perceived by local firms in the manufacturing and selected business support services sectors. The survey seeks to highlight key concerns regarding regulatory burden, skills shortage and weak innovation capabilities, and use the findings as input for the mid-term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan. The study, a continuity to the first study undertaken in 2002/2003, involves nine states - Johor, Melaka, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kedah, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak, the Statistics Department said in a statement. According to it, the study covers 1,200 establishments in the manufacturing sector and 300 in the services industry. Data collection began this month and will continue until January, with field interviews by trained enumerators from the Department. "The information collected at the establishments level will be treated as strictly confidential as provided for under the Statistics Act 1965 (Revised 1989)," the statement added.
