Malaysia’s three spots rise in CPI

Malaysia has risen three spots in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), from the 57th spot to the 54th.

It scored two additional points to 52 points, from 50 points that it scored in 2023 and 2024.

In 2022 Malaysia scored 47 points, 48 in 2021 and 51 in 2020.

CPI ranks 182 countries based on perceived levels of public sector corruption, using a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

A rank is the country’s position relative to other countries in the index. It can change based on the number countries.

A detailed scoring saw an improvement of 14 points in the World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey from 50 points in 2024 to 64 in 2025.

The IMD World Competitiveness Center World Competitiveness Yearbook Executive Opinion Survey saw an increase of 12 points from 38 to 50.

There are about eight reasons that possibly contributed to Malaysia’s rise in points and rankings.

They are Finance and Fiscal Responsibility Act, amendments to Audit and Companies Acts, the launch of National Anti Corruption Strategy (NACS 2024-2028). The CPI task force is led by the Chief Secretary to the Government.

There are also institutional reform initiatives, sustained government actions and amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act and the tabling of Government Procurement Bill.

Comparatively at the ASEAN level, Malaysia is in the third spot.

Singapore retained its third position worldwide. Brunei that finally made the list and sits at the 31st spot.

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