Critics should not focus solely on the nation's debt-to-gross-domestic-product (GDP) ratio in assessing the government's ability to manage debt.

According to Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, other countries have far higher debt-to-GDP ratios and yet are doing fine.

"If you want to rely on such figures, the US would already be bankrupt as its debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 100 percent. Look at Japan, it rated at 250 percent while Singapore is 89 percent...