Datuk Seri Abdullah brought up the subject in his speech in which he said the government's efficiency was rated sixth best in the world last year. -- ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK

He told 8,000 top civil servants that the two cities are 'grapes' while Malaysia is an 'apple'.

His message was that Malaysians can do better and they should not despair by comparing Malaysia with Singapore and Hong Kong because a direct comparison was unfair.

'They are grapes...and we are apple. How can you compare grapes with an apple? We can't,' he told the annual gathering between the premier and top civil servants.

He also said Malaysia could not be compared with Taiwan because the population of the island was higher than Malaysia's.

Malaysia's 27 million population consists of 60 per cent Malays along with 25 per cent ethnic Chinese and 8 per cent Indians. The rest are from other minority races.

Datuk Seri Abdullah brought up the subject in his speech in which he said the government's efficiency was rated sixth best in the world last year, compared to its eighth placing in 2000.

Quoting the World Competitiveness Year Book released by the Swiss-based business school IMD, he said that Malaysia was ranked above the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and France in places with a population of over 20 million.

Only China, Canada, the United States, India and Taiwan were ranked better, he said.

He said there were differences between Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The Republic and Hong Kong were single-race territories and therefore faced different challenges and drew up different human development projects. Their economies should also not be compared with Malaysia's, he added.

Datuk Seri Abdullah said that a better comparison with Singapore and Hong Kong is Malaysia's Klang Valley and not the whole country.

SIN CHEW DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, BERNAMA