Released earlier today, the anti-graft group’s latest report saw Malaysia rebound to 50 points in 2023 from 47 points in 2022, marking the first time in two years that the country has reached the 50-point mark.

Malaysia had a CPI score of 53 in 2019, which fell to 51 in 2020 and 48 in 2021. The CPI measures and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, and countries are scored on a scale of 0 (very corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

In a statement, MACC noted that TI-Malaysia attributed the improvement to factors such as MACC’s investigations, arrests, and convictions of high-profile cases over the past two years.

“MACC is committed and determined to continue eradicating corruption, abuse of power, and misconduct within its mandate as the sole enforcement agency entrusted to combat corruption in the country,” it said.

“MACC calls on all parties to continue cooperating, play their respective roles, and demonstrate political commitment to good governance and corruption eradication.

“This is crucial in achieving the government’s goal of placing Malaysia in the 25th position in the CPI rankings by 2033.”

Last July, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia should be ranked among the top 25 countries in the CPI by 2033.

Malaysia’s ranking among the 180 countries surveyed improved from 61st in 2022 to 57th in 2023.

Denmark (90 points), Finland (87) and New Zealand (85) topped this year’s index.