The National Transformation Programme (NTP) which is now in its seventh year of implementation has recorded encouraging growth, and thus brushed off negative perception of Malaysia as a failed state, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He said the tabling of the NTP report last April showed that the National Key Results Area under the Government Transformation Programme had achieved 99 percent of their key performance indicators.

“For the National Key Economic Areas under the Economic Transformation Programme, we had succeeded in achieving 111 percent KPI. Through the Strategic Reform Initiatives, the KPI had surpassed the target of 108 percent," he said in his National Day 2016 message in Kuala Lumpur tonight.

Najib said the government's efforts and various agencies had received the recognition from international organisations including the World Economic Forum which placed Malaysia at the 18th position in the Global Competitiveness Report.

He said according to the Financial Market Development of the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Ranking 2015-2016, Malaysia was ranked at ninth position, which is the only emerging market listed in the top 10 countries.

"Malaysia is also recognised in the World Bank report in terms of Ease of Doing Business, at 21th position in 2010, and has risen to 18th spot in 2015," he said.

Najib said Malaysia was also an example of a Muslim country that is progressive and dynamic which was emulated as a role model that upholds the principles of moderation and has achieved top position in the Global Islamic Economy Indicator 2014-2015 from a list of 70 countries.

Besides that, Malaysia is the world's largest sukuk issuer with almost 55 percent of total global sukuk value of over US$320 billion as of end-2015.

He further said even though Malaysia was facing uncertainty and gloomy global economy, its gross domestic product for the second quarter recorded a four percent growth.

- Bernama