PUTRAJAYA: The Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) is confident the country's rankings in World Bank's Doing Business Index & Report 2008 would improve next year, underpinned by its sustained momentum for change in the public delivery system.

Its co-chairman Tan Sri Mond Sidek Hassan said: “We are working with the World Bank. We believe when the results come in, we will not go lower but higher.”

“But, we are not doing it for the sake of World Bank or World Trade Organisation. We are doing it for ourselves and for our country (but) it will be a double bonus if our rankings go up.”

Malaysia was ranked 24th in the “Ease of Doing Business” category, which covered the April 2006 to June 2007 period. Singapore topped the list while Hong Kong, China ranked fourth in the category.

Speaking to reporters after releasing Pemudah's first annual report here on Feb 29, he said in just a year of implementation, notable measures, processes and policies that impacted competitiveness and business conduct were put in place, resulting in an improved public delivery system.

According to the Pemudah annual report, several improvements noted included a significant reduction of time needed to set up a business and reviewing preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment reports.

Another co-chairman, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers president Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon said Pemudah also wanted to address issues that would indirectly impact the business environment, apart from purely business-related issues, to make the country a preferable place for investors and citizens to do business in.

Going forward, the government task force would implement new initiatives to ease the time and costs of doing business, including further refining tax matters, streamlining hotel licences and instilling zero tolerance towards corrupt practices.

Sidek said: “I am not in denial syndrome, (but) I do not think corrupt practices are prevalent in the society. And, we are not tolerating any corrupt practices. That's why we have installed closed-circuit televisions all around to prevent people from doing it, and I believe it is working.”