KUALA LUMPUR: The Works Ministry (KKR) has denied a news report titled "Malaysia ke-12 Terbawah Miliki Jalan Raya Terburuk" (Malaysia has 12th worst quality roads in the world) published by a local daily on Monday.

In a statement yesterday, the ministry said the article is inaccurate, misleading and gives a negative perception of the overall quality of roads in Malaysia.

It also said the article used the report published by Zutobi, an online driver's education company, as a reference, which calculated the scores based on only four factors, namely road quality, improvements in road quality, road death and the relative size of the road network, and it only took into account data for 59 countries.

KKR also explained that there is another report published by Utusan Malaysia on Aug 10 titled "Kualiti Jalan di Malaysia 21 Terbaik di Dunia, Mengatasi Australia, Britain, New Zealand" (Road quality in Malaysia among 21 best in the world, surpassing Australia, Britain, New Zealand), based on the road quality rankings issued by The Global Economy using the data obtained from the Global Competitiveness Index.

"The study also cited authentic sources from an executive study involving 14,000 business leaders from 144 countries who participated in the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland," the statement read.

Based on the news report, Malaysia scored 5.3 points out of the total seven points to be in the 21st position, surpassing Sweden (23), Canada (31), Australia (33) and Britain (37). Malaysia is also ranked second in Southeast Asia, after Singapore.

Meanwhile, KKR said it always pays attention to all published research reports as a check and balance method to ensure the delivery of the best services for the people.

"There are various ongoing commitments carried out by KKR, specifically in maintaining the quality of roads in the country. These maintenance works are focused on Federal Roads, totalling 20,017 kilometres.

"KKR also received over RM900,000 in allocations for road maintenance costs throughout the country. As of August, 6,656 pothole repairs have been conducted," it said.

The ministry said it also focused on continuous efforts to maintain road quality through the Zeropotholes campaign since 2016 and the Kita Jaga Jalan Kita Campaign launched in November 2021.

-- BERNAMA