World Bank: Malaysia needs underlying structural economic transformation to boost productivity

Malaysia needs an underlying structural economic transformation to increase productivity growth, according to the World Bank.

根据世界银行的数据，马来西亚需要一个潜在的结构性经济转型来提高生产率增长。

East Asia and Pacific regional vice president Manuela V Ferro highlighted that while the country has done relatively well compared to its regional peers, it has lagged its global aspirational peers that have nearly three times the productivity levels.

东亚和太平洋地区副总裁Manuela V Ferro强调，虽然与区域同行相比，该国的表现相对较好，但它落后于其全球有抱负的同行，后者的生产率水平几乎是其三倍。

“Further, there are significant variations in productivity levels among firms within Malaysia.

"此外，马来西亚各公司之间的生产率水平存在显着差异。

“Pre-pandemic estimates suggest that smaller firms generally lag significantly behind their larger counterparts,” she said, adding that firms in the top 25% of the productivity distribution are nearly 12 times more productive than those in the bottom 25%.

"大流行前的估计表明，规模较小的公司通常明显落后于较大的同行，"她说，并补充说，生产率分布前25%的公司比收入最低的25%的公司生产率高出近12倍。

“The pandemic has further exacerbated these differences,” she noted.

Ferro said that in recent years, spending on research and development (R&D) activities in Malaysia has decreased after a steady increase until 2016.

"大流行进一步加剧了这些差异，"她指出。

Ferro表示，近年来，马来西亚研发（R&D）活动的支出在稳步增长后有所下降，直到2016年。

Gross public expenditure on R&D has dropped from 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 to 1.0% of GDP in 2018.

研发方面的公共支出总额已从2016年占国内生产总值（GDP）的1.4%下降到2018年的1.0%。

“This falls short of Malaysia’s envisaged goal of 2.0% of GDP and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 2.6%.”

"这低于马来西亚设想的占GDP的2.0%的目标和经济合作与发展组织（OECD）平均2.6%。"

The World Bank also found that Malaysian firms are also less likely to spend on R&D compared to their regional peers.

世界银行还发现，与区域同行相比，马来西亚公司在研发方面的支出也较小。

“Our engagement with the government has provided us opportunities to look at relevant policy areas to assist in charting a path forward.

"我们与政府的接触为我们提供了研究相关政策领域的机会，以协助制定前进的道路。

“One aspect of this which we focus on in our recent work relates to increasing small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) contribution to Malaysia’s economic growth,” Ferro said.

"我们在最近的工作中关注的一个方面涉及增加中小企业（SME）对马来西亚经济增长的贡献，"Ferro说。

Based on analysis undertaken in the ‘SME Program Review’, the World Bank said Malaysia could consider realigning its public support for SMEs to not only enable a private sector-led recovery from the pandemic but also support firm-level innovation.

根据"中小企业计划审查"中的分析，世界银行表示，马来西亚可以考虑重新调整对中小企业的公共支持，不仅使私营部门能够从大流行中复苏，而且还支持企业层面的创新。

Another World Bank study titled ‘Assessment of the Malaysian Start-Up Financing Ecosystem’ revealed that Malaysia’s venture capital activities are relatively low compared to the region, in relation to its level of economic development.

世界银行另一项题为"马来西亚初创融资生态系统评估"的研究表明，与该地区相比，马来西亚的风险投资活动与其经济发展水平相比相对较低。

“Thus funding activities are performing below potential, affecting investible deal flow down the line. We also find that public support is concentrated on the more advanced stages of innovative activities, calling for a possible need to rebalance this to earlier and hence the riskier stages of the innovation cycle,” she added.

"因此，融资活动的表现低于潜在水平，影响了可投资的交易流程。我们还发现，公众支持集中在创新活动的更高级阶段，呼吁可能需要将其重新平衡到创新周期的早期，因此风险更高的阶段，"她补充说。

Meanwhile, the assessments on the effectiveness of public research institutions found that while the linkages between academia and industry have increased over time, it broadly remains weak, hence affecting commercialisation of research outputs.

与此同时，对公共研究机构有效性的评估发现，虽然学术界和工业界之间的联系随着时间的推移而增加，但总体上仍然薄弱，因此影响了研究成果的商业化。

“It has been encouraging to see that in response to the report’s recommendations, the government established a Research Management Unit to reorient its technology transfer and commercialisation programmes to be more responsive to industry needs,” Ferro said.

"令人鼓舞的是，为了响应报告的建议，政府成立了一个研究管理部门，以重新定位其技术转让和商业化计划，以更好地响应行业需求，"Ferro说。

Based on the reports, the World Bank recommended the government to enhance evidence-based policymaking for SME development by increasing monitoring and evaluation of government programmes and coordination among agencies, to recalibrate SME programmes to support needs on digitalisation and skills upgrading, and to rebalance the policy mix towards the ideation stage with programmes that crowd in private investments

根据这些报告，世界银行建议政府通过加强对政府计划的监测和评估以及各机构之间的协调，加强中小企业发展的循证决策，重新调整中小企业计划以支持数字化和技能升级的需求，并通过吸引私人投资的计划重新平衡政策组合，进入构思阶段。