CME: Malaysia maintains the 29th position in the International Property Rights Index 2022 despite a deterioration of the score
TUESDAY, 20 September 2022: Malaysia ranks 29 out of 129 countries International Property Rights Index (IPRI) 2022, released by the Property Rights Alliance in Washington, DC. The Center for Market Education is the Malaysian partner for the Property Rights Alliance and contributed to the annual report with the analysis of Malaysia and a case study titled The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Malaysia, authored by Prof Sitara Karim (Nottingham University Malaysia) and Dr Carmelo Ferlito (CEO of the Center for Market Education). Both the report and the case study can be downloaded from here: https://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/full-report.
The three countries that achieved the highest property rights protections are Finland, Singapore, and Switzerland, according to the 2022 International Property Rights Index. The 129 countries include in the 2022 IPRI represent 93.91% of the world population and 98.12% of global GDP.
Hernando de Soto, renowned economist and President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy highlighted that this report “reinforces the principle that property rights positively correlate to overall quality of life and economic strength”.
“Property rights are human rights. Strong frameworks for property rights preserve human dignity, innovation, and freedom while protecting against abuses of government power”, added Dr Carmelo Ferlito, CEO of the Center for Market Education.
Executive Director of the Property Rights Alliance and Editor of the Index, Lorenzo Montanari, commented on the release: “During this pandemic time, now more than ever it is evident how innovation and intellectual property rights have played a crucial role in discovering vaccines and finding solutions to COVID-19. Property rights are not only one of the most important pillars of free society but also human rights as stated in Article 17 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 2022 Index will serve as an important tool for policymakers and business communities to understand how the three main components of the property rights ecosystem (Legal and Political Environment, Physical Property Rights, and Intellectual Property Rights) interact to attract investment and nurture healthy institutions. As the Nobel Laureate Friedrich von Hayek stated, ‘The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom.’”
Malaysia’s IPRI score decreased by -0.399 to 6.3 placing it 8th in the Asia and Oceania region and 29th in the world. The year before Malaysia was ranking 7th at regional level. The table below presents the different Malaysia’s ranks and scores for the different components of the IPRI.
The main conclusions to be deducted are:
- Despite maintaining the world rank, the absolute IPRI score deteriorates by almost 6% and this is mainly due to:
- A slight worsening of political stability;
- A very heavy worsening on the process involving the registration of a physical property (including the incorporation of a firm).
- While the general rank is 29, Malaysia is only 41st in the world in terms of Legal and Political Environment; this is due in particular to:
- Very low rank in terms of political stability (53);
- Low rank in control of corruption (48) and rule of law (40).
- Malaysia keeps on scoring fairly well in terms of defense of Physical Property Rights, but its rank decreased to 29th globally from 18th in 2021, mainly because the score of the process for registering properties almost halved in one year.
According to Dr Carmelo, CEO of the Center for Market Education, “it is good to see Malaysia maintaining its overall rank, but the deterioration of the score sends a message that the government needs to take into account: in particular, political stability, control of corruption and the difficulties in registering properties are undoubtedly elements that policy makers need to take into account, also at the light of the slight deterioration in the regional ranking, signaling that our neighbours are fighting to improve”.
About the International Property Rights Index
The International Property Rights Index (IPRI) is the only comparative global index that ranks the strength of both physical and intellectual property rights as well as the legal and political environments that contain them. PRA partnered with 128 think tanks in 74 countries to emphasize that property rights are the building blocks for a just, prosperous, and free society.
About CME: The Center for Market Education (CME) is a boutique think-tank based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
As an academic and educational institution, CME aims to promote a more pluralistic and multidisciplinary approach to economics and to spread the knowledge of a sounder economics, grounded in the understanding of market forces.
In order to do so, CME is not only involved in academic initiatives, but it organizes seminars, webinars and tailor-made economics classes for students, journalists, businesspeople and professionals who wish to better understand the relevance of economics for their daily lives and activities.
Economics matters and needs to be presented in a fashion in which the link with reality is clearly visible. In this sense, we look not only at theoretical economics but also at policy making, with an emphasis on the unintended consequences generated by political actions. Visit https://marketedu.me/.
For media enquiries:
- Center for Market Education:
- General email: centerformarketeducation@gmail.com.
- Dr Carmelo Ferlito, CEO of CME: T: +60-192394148 – Email: carmelo.ferlito@gmail.com
