KUALA LUMPUR – The Works Ministry has denied a news report titled “Malaysia ke-12 Terbawah Miliki Jalan Raya Terburuk” (“Malaysia has the 12th worst roads in the world”) published by a local daily yesterday.
In a statement today, the ministry said the article is inaccurate, misleading, and gives a negative perception of the overall quality of roads in Malaysia.
It also said the article used a report published by Zutobi, an online driver’s education company, as a reference, calculating the scores based on only four factors, namely road quality, improvements in road quality, road deaths, and the relative size of the road network, and only took into account data for 59 countries.
The ministry also noted another report published by Utusan Malaysia on August 10 titled “Kualiti Jalan di Malaysia 21 Terbaik di Dunia, Mengatasi Australia, Britain, New Zealand” (“Roads in Malaysia among 21 best in the world, surpassing Australia, Britain, New Zealand”), based on road quality rankings issued by The Global Economy using the data obtained from the Global Competitiveness Index.
“The study also cited authentic sources from an executive study involving 14,000 business leaders from 144 countries who participated in the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland,” the statement read.
Based on the news report, Malaysia scored 5.3 points out of the total seven points to be in the 21st position, surpassing Sweden (23), Canada (31), Australia (33) and Britain (37). Malaysia is also ranked second in Southeast Asia, after Singapore.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it always pays attention to all published research reports to ensure the delivery of its best services for the people.
“There are various ongoing commitments carried out by the ministry, specifically in maintaining the quality of roads in the country. These maintenance works are focused on federal roads, totalling 20,017 kilometres.
“The ministry also received over RM900,000 in allocations for road maintenance throughout the country. As of August, 6,656 pothole repairs have been conducted,” it said.
The ministry said it also focused on continuous efforts to maintain road quality through the Zeropotholes campaign since 2016 and the Kita Jaga Jalan Kita Campaign launched in November 2021. – Bernama, October 4, 2022
