Trust Malaysia 2014 Release

8/11/2019 Trust Malaysia 2014 Release

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PRESS RELEASE

Edelman Public Relations Worldwide Sdn Bhd (116568A)45-9, The Boulevard, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel +603 2287-8689 Fax +603 2287-0234 www.edelman.com

A Daniel J Edelman Company

Malaysia Results of the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer Highlights Dramatic

Rise for Trust In Business

Third edition of Trust study in Malaysia shows steady trust in NGOs and Media,

lower trust in Government.

Kuala Lumpur, 13 February 2014: Business in Malaysia saw a significant jump in trust with

a nine-point rise to 72% this year, rebounding from a two-point drop from 2013. This was

mainly due to strong trust in big business and publicly-traded companies, pointing that a

commitment to shareholder value and high standards of governance are held in high regard

by Malaysians.

A large majority (80%) of respondents in Malaysia said they trusted big business, up by

three percentage points from a year before, while 77% said publicly-traded companies are

trustworthy. This sentiment is shared across Asia Pacific with 73% and 74%, respectively,

indicating these types of business are most trusted.

This result comes on the back of Malaysia movingup six notches to sixth place in the World

Banks Ease of Doing Business 2013 report. The implementation of strict reporting

standards, integrity pacts, open tenders and independent oversight is seen to have

contributed significantly to business earning higher trust from the Malaysian public, said

Raymond Siva, Managing Director of Edelman Malaysia at the launch of the Malaysian

Edition of the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer.

The result was further strengthened by the World Banks vote of confidence for the countrys

banking sector, reporting that it is poised for further growth in 2014 with strong prospects

and profitability. It was no surprise then to see that 78% of Malaysians hold a high level of

trust in banks in the country according to the Trust Barometer.

Technology companies continue to enjoy high levels of trust with an increase of five

percentage points to 90%, while consumer health and pharmaceutical companies saw trust

gains of four and three percentage points to 79% and 77% respectively, possibly due tostringent regulation and consumer protection policies.


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However, while trust in business saw a marked increase, trust in its leaders was lacklustre.

Respondents gave clear indication of the attributes they expected from CEOs to earn trust,

top of which were:

- Communicating clearly and transparently

- Engaging employees regularly to discuss the state of the business

- Tells the truth regardless of how complex or unpopular it is

These attributes were only separated by 1% each, indicating that transparency and honesty

in top executives are paramount trust building attributes, saidSiva.

Lower trust in Government seen globally

The big news this year was the collapse of trust in government. In 17 out of the 27 countries

surveyed, trust in government declined over the last year.

In Malaysia, however, following an emotionally-charged 13th General Election last year, trust

in government only dropped six points to 54% after rising double digits last year, faring better

than regional peers, such as Singapore (-7%) and Hong Kong (-18%).

As Malaysia forges ahead with its ambition of transforming to a high-income economy by

2020, the government has shown that it is willing to make tough decisions such as subsidy

cuts and introduction of the Goods and Services Tax in 2015 to achieve this goal. However,

the perceived lack of public engagement and clearly articulated explanation on a variety of

issues, such as the less than sterling government spending report card highlighted by the

Auditor General, security intrusion in Sabah and action on corruption, may have contributed

to trust in government declining from the previous year, explains Siva.

That said, trust in the Malaysian government still remains in positive territory with over half

of respondents saying they trusted the institution in question, making Malaysia one of only

10 countries to do so, he added. The percentage of respondents saying they trust the

government a great deal also saw a slight increase from 21% to 23% this year.


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In an interesting twist, although the respondents placed higher trust in Business over

Government, 33% say governments most important role is to protect consumers from

irresponsible business practices. 20% of respondents said they wanted the government to

build infrastructure that promotes and facilitates business while a further 20% wanted the

government to ensure free market access as well as open competition within industries.

While respondents expected a company to deliver on product quality and have high ethics,

there was a significant gap in how they thought companies were performing on theseattributes, with 18 points separating perceived importance to performance. Significantly,

respondents viewed a companys product and services, level of engagement and integrity as

priority areas for trust building.

For three consecutive years, trust in Non-Governmental Organisations remain strong and

leads against businesses, media and government, albeit with a one percentage point drop in

trust from a year prior to 75%. This data reinforces the view that championing a purpose

remains a top priority for the majority of Malaysians.

Similarly, technical experts and academics remained at the top of the list of people most

trusted by Malaysians for the third consecutive year. A person like yourself dropped 12

points from last year as a credible info source. CEOs are credible spokespeople to just over

half of Malaysians while only one-third of respondents trust a government spokesperson.

Trust in media was stable, sliding just 1 point from 2013 to 59%. However, the more

interesting news is that the percentage of people who said they trust media a great deal

rose from 15% to 20% from a year agogreat news for media practitioners.

Overall, the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer Malaysia continued to strengthen the fact that

Malaysians are generally trusting, showing a one-point total increase in the Trust Index from

a year before to 65% this year.

A majority of Malaysians feel that business and industry leaders need to play a more active

role in business policy discussions that result in a shared future benefit with the community.


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A significant majority (84%) of global respondents were very clear in demanding a more

inclusive and cooperative business-government-civil society relationship to earn trust. It is

abundantly clear that the clarion call for leaders is to participate at ground-level discussions

to understand stakeholders and advocate a clearly articulated strategy based on feedback.

Measurable results must then be taken, assessed and finally acted upon to deliver on the

dual objectives of shareholder and community value. The CEO must become the Chief

Engagement Officer.

For more downloadable media materialswww.releasd.com/1256

# # #

About the Edelman Trust Barometer

The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer is the firms 14thannual trust and credibility survey. The survey

was produced by research firm Edelman Berland and consisted of 20-minute online interviews

conducted October 16, 2013 November 29, 2013. The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer online

survey sampled 27,000 general population respondents with an oversample of 6,000 informed publics

ages 25-64 across 27 countries. All informed publics met the following criteria: college-educated;

household income in the top quartile for their age in their country; read or watch business/news mediaat least several times a week; follow public policy issues in the news at least several times a week.

For more information, visit:http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/trust-2014/.

About Edelman

Edelman is the worlds largest public relations firm, with 67 offices and more than 4,800 employees

worldwide, as well as affiliates in more than 30 cities. Edelman was named Advertising Ages top -

ranked PR firm of the decade in 2009 and one of its A -List Agencies in both 2010 and 2011;

Adweeks 2011 PR Agency of the Year; PRWeeks 2011 Large PR Agency of the Year; and The

Holmes Reports 2013 Global Agency of the Year and its 2012 Digital Agency of the Year.

Edelman was named one of the Best Places to Work by Advertising Age in 2010 and 2012 and

among Glassdoors top ten Best Places to Work in 2011 and 2012. Edelman owns specialty firms

Edelman Berland (research), Blue (advertising), BioScience Communications (medical

communications), and agencies Edelman Significa (Brazil), and Pegasus (China). Visit

http://www.edelman.com for more information.

For enquiries, please contact:

Sahana [email protected](+603) 2287-8689 ext. 212

Ravind [email protected](+603) 2287-8689 ext. 218
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Trust Malaysia 2014 Release