World Bank Slams Malaysia's Civil Service.

Malaysia has vowed to slash away red tape to help along business deals after a World Bank report said the country's bureaucracy is deterring investors, state media said Thursday.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has led efforts to seek foreign investment, said Malaysia had "no choice" but to reduce bureaucratic procedures after the criticism, the Bernama news agency reported.

"These procedures are disturbing. The procedures that we have inherited over the years topped up with various other laws to complicate the existing procedures," he was quoted as saying.

The prime minister cited the World Bank report as saying potential investors would be put off by having to plough through 25 procedures taking some 281 days before setting up a factory.

Investors face fewer procedures which take far less time in neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia, he said.

They are also hampered by more bureaucracy when setting up a business in Malaysia, compared to other neighbours such as Singapore and Australia.

"We want to compete with other countries. We no longer compete for kampung (village) championship or national championship but the international league," Abdullah said.

The premier, who has promised to clamp down on corruption, said the amount of bureaucracy was also leading to perceptions of graft in the civil service, which suffers from complaints that workers must be bribed to speed up their work.

He said the government had created a special task force targeting the performance of the public sector to boost competitiveness and "help and not hamper" private sector activities.

***** So now the whole world knows of our super-slow uncivil service. And these blokes want a revision of their salaries! (Channel Newsasia)
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