Malaysia ranks 57 out of 169 for HDI

Malaysia ranked 57 out of 169 countries in the 2010 Human Development Index (HDI) with an HDI value of 0.744, which ranked the nation in the high human development category.

United Nations resident coordinator, Malaysia and UNDP resident representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam Kamal Malhotra said: Malaysia did drop two places between 2005 and 2010, through this does not mean that Malaysia has regressed in human development since its HDI value increased from 0.726 to 0.744 during the same period.

He said although the improvement in HDI value showed that Malaysia had done quite well, it did not mean that other countries had not done better.

By comparison, for example, he said the Republic of Korea and Singapore which had similar starting points compared with Malaysia 40 years ago were now ranked 12 and 27 respectively in HDI.

HDI was a composite national measure of health, education and income for 169 countries. As 2010 represents the 20th anniversary of the Human Development Report, this year's report includes three new indices: the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the Gender Inequality Index and the Multidimensional Poverty Index.

By The Star Online

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/12/13/business/20101213155549&sec=business