KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's drop in the latest World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR) does not determine investment decisions by investors, said the World Bank lead economist for Malaysia.
Apurva Sanghi noted in X that the notion that investors use these rankings to make investment decisions is "naive".
He added that the three most important things investors observe are policy stability, quality of infrastructure for both physical and digital as well as talent.
"Malaysia's Achilles heel when it comes to investment remains talent," said Apurva.
Malaysia is ranked 34th out of 67 countries in the 2024 WCR, dropping seven places from its 27th ranking last year.
The WCR Report released by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) ranked Malaysia fourth among Asean countries after Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.
Singapore emerged as the most competitive economy in the world, climbing four places from the previous year to surpass Switzerland in second place.
The report said that Malaysia fell behind in almost all assessed areas, including economic performance, government efficiency and business efficiency.