Publication: Regulatory Governance for Development and Growth: Malaysia's Experience with Good Regulatory Practices
Date
2019-06
ISSN
Published
2019-06
Author(s)
World Bank Group
Abstract
Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) are a
systematic application of tools, institutions, and
procedures that governments can mobilize to ensure that
regulatory outcomes are effective, transparent, inclusive,
and sustained. Other terms used for GRP include ‘regulatory
governance’ and ‘better regulation.’ Among the most common
GRP tools used by governments are: public consultation, ex
ante regulatory impact analysis (RIA), ex post review of
existing regulations, administrative simplification, access
to laws and regulations, forward regulatory planning, and
regulatory oversight functions. This report focuses on GRP
because by improving the regulatory environment, they can
boost conditions for sustainable growth and investment. This
is evidenced, among others, in the World Bank Group’s Global
Investment Competitiveness Report 2017-2018, which surveyed
750 investors in developing and transition economies. The
report found that next to ‘political stability and
security’, the ‘legal and regulatory environment’ was the
most important consideration of senior executives when
making investment decisions (WBG, 2018). Similarly, evidence
shows a positive relationship between the improvement of the
regulatory environment and aggregate investment (and
economic growth), suggesting that countries stand to gain
from a broad push for streamlining regulations and
procedures affecting business (Eifert, 2009). The report
reflects on Malaysia’s formal experience with GRP because,
although launched only relatively recently, results have
been remarkable. Malaysia has demonstrated that more
business-friendly regulations and a more favorable
regulatory environment can contribute to economic growth and
investment. Moreover, Malaysia’s regulatory reform success
has been reflected in many international indicators, such as
the Global Indicators of Regulatory Governance, Worldwide
Governance Indicators, Doing Business, (all produced by the
WBG) and those from the World Economic Forum that measure
the burden of government regulations and transparency of the
policymaking process. International indicators measuring GRP
performance show that Malaysia is converging with
high-income OECD countries.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2019. Regulatory Governance for Development and Growth: Malaysia's Experience with Good Regulatory Practices. © World Bank, Malaysia. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32440 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”