KUALA LUMPUR (June 24): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is understood to have called for a last-minute meeting with Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz on Monday afternoon to discuss “urgent matters”.

This was mentioned by Miti secretary-general Datuk Hairil Yahri Yaacob Hairil when delivering the speech on behalf of Zafrul at the launch of Malaysia Productivity Corporation’s (MPC) productivity report 2024 on Monday.

“I spoke to him just before I came in. He had sent his best wishes and apologies for not being able to be here this afternoon," said Hairil, explaining that Zafrul had to go for the meeting with the prime minister "to discuss urgent matters that we need to tackle tomorrow during the Parliament seating”.

Among the “urgent matters” being discussed is Malaysia’s competitiveness position, sources told The Edge.

Malaysia dropped seven places to 34th in the World Competitiveness Ranking released by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) last week.

Anwar is scheduled to hold the prime minister’s question time on Tuesday, after the second meeting of the 15th Parliament began on Monday.

Last Friday, the prime minister said that matters highlighted in the IMD report were resolved in the first quarter of this year.

He noted that one of the concerns was the weakness of the ringgit. "It was a challenging issue last year, but we have seen improvements in 1Q2024,” Anwar, who is also the finance minister, told reporters.

Zafrul also spoke about the country’s fallen ranking on Saturday, citing reduced exports in electronic communications due to lower global demand and increased global competition for the products.

“The government is confident that Malaysia’s position in the IMD’s World Competitiveness Ranking 2025 will improve compared to this year, driven by the increase in high-technology product exports,” Zafrul said in a social media post.

In a speech at the MPC event on Monday, Hairil noted that Malaysia's productivity per employee grew moderately at 0.9% in 2023 versus 5.4% post-pandemic, following a strong rebound in 2022.

“This was due to several factors, including how eight states — Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perlis, Kedah, Sabah, Perak and Johor — consistently registered low productivity levels below the national average," he said.

Hairil added collaboration across all sectors and stakeholders would be required to effectively address this challenge.