Pasukan Petugas Khas Pemudahcara Perniagaan (PEMUDAH), the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business, was established by the Federal Government of Malaysia on 7 February 2007 following its introduction in the Honourable Prime Minister’s annual speech made to the Civil Service on 11 January 2007.

The Chief Secretary to the Government was designated as the Chairman of PEMUDAH and the Co-Chair was held by a private sector business leader.

The public sector members of PEMUDAH are mainly the secretary generals and director generals of government ministries, agencies and departments and the private sector members are drawn from prominent industry and trade leaders and non-governmental organisation heads.

Collaboration between the public sector and the private sector through PEMUDAH has since been driving policy and regulatory reforms and improvements to enhance the public and private sector service delivery and the general business environment in Malaysia.

The initial scope of work of PEMUDAH was conceptualised from the methodology of the World Bank Group Doing Business Report which ranked economies worldwide on the ease of doing business.

PEMUDAH enhancement and improvement initiatives were pursued through Focus Groups, each co-chaired by a senior government official and a corporate leader with their memberships consisting of senior Civil Service administrators, professional practitioners and business community leaders.

The terms of reference of the Focus Groups were aligned with the ten business regulation indicators of the Doing Business Report. Malaysia’s performances scored on these indicators were benchmarked with the performance scores of the other economies. Malaysia was perennially ranked in the highest percentile grouping of economies in the report due to the many initiatives successfully undertaken.

The PEMUDAH Working Group on Efficiency Issues (WGEI) met monthly to consider policy and regulatory issues and assign them to the Focus Groups to be in-depth assessed by their working groups which put up recommendations. WGEI-sanctioned recommendations were escalated to the monthly PEMUDAH meetings for endorsement before their implementation subject to obtaining prior approvals, wherever applicable, from higher authorities.

The PEMUDAH organisational structure had undergone a change after its first decade milestone in 2017 when WGEI was discontinued and the work done by the Focus Groups was assumed over by Technical Working Groups still aligned with the business regulation indicators of the Doing Business Report.

The onset of the COVID-19 virus pandemic in Malaysia in March 2020 and the ensuing impositions of Movement Control Orders (MCOs) by the Government to control the spread of the virus had a huge adverse impact on businesses in those sectors of the economy deemed as non-essential. The unprecedented curtailment of goods and services production, distributive and retail trades and services compounded by supply chain breakdowns seriously challenged the very survivability of businesses.

PEMUDAH reacted swiftly to the crisis and instituted the PEMUDAH Private Sector Meeting in April 2020 specifically to address and help resolve issues bought about by the impact of the pandemic and the MCOs on economic sectors so as to assist businesses to tide over constraints related to workforce, supply chains, logistics, marketing, cash flows, workers’ vaccinations, etc. Solutions were recommended to the PEMUDAH meeting for endorsement and, where deemed necessary, for escalation to the Economic Action Council (EAC) chaired by the Honourable Prime Minister for further endorsement before being shared with the relevant government ministries, agencies and departments for implementation. Prior consultations with regulatory ministries, agencies and departments were inherent in the process of forming recommendations.

PEMUDAH is a partner in the MyMudah initiative launched by the Government in July 2020 to be operated in tandem with the online Unified Public Consultation (UPC) Portal to enable businesses to present, and have resolved, their concerns and on-the-ground difficulties over regulations hindering economic recovery and growth especially during the post-pandemic national economic recovery.

The cornerstone of PEMUDAH is the public and private sector collaboration which is being replicated such as the establishment of PEMUDAH Pahang in 2021. Outreach is being made to the business community at large primarily through the hosting of online topical webinars highlighting regulatory issues and encouraging discourses amongst stakeholders. Good Regulatory Practices (GRPs) are championed.

A major operational restructuring was finalised towards the end of 2021 for implementation in 2022. The work focus areas of the Technical Working Groups in terms of economic sectors will be re-aligned since the World Bank Group had ceased publishing the Doing Business Report and will also include key strategic national interest areas. This development serves to maintain the relevancy of PEMUDAH’s role in addressing and resolving the doing business-related current issues and challenges so as to enhance efficiency, productivity and competitiveness for a vibrant and prosperous business environment in Malaysia.

The stature of the PEMUDAH public and private sector collaborative taskforce is growing over the years and from strength to strength due to its pro-activeness and responsiveness to facilitate the doing of business in the various sectors of the economy by having government policies and regulations to be not more than what is necessary.

To enhance and strengthen the public and private sector delivery service in being globally benchmarked, proactive, responsive, business-friendly and results-oriented for greater efficiency, productivity, international competitiveness, sustainability and inclusiveness in the national economy which uphold the welfare of the people.

1. Promotes ease of doing business through Public-Private Partnership

2. Improve business regulations to enhance competitiveness

3. Proactively launch and pursuance of new improvement initiatives