Malaysia rated world's top Muslim-friendly holiday destination

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak says, the study by travel consultancy, Crescentrating, gave Malaysia 8.3 out of 10 points, making Malaysia a friendly destination for Muslim tourists from around the world.

The prime minister believes the friendliness and hospitality of the people of Malaysia from different races, cultures and religions are one of the main factors for the influx of tourists to the country.

"We are also offering facilities for Muslim tourists, especially in the provision of halal food and places of worship," he said in his Facebook page on Wednesday.

The Singapore-based Muslim travel consultancy group has rated Malaysia as the world's top Muslim-friendly holiday destination.

The survey puts Malaysia ahead of Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. It ranks countries on how well they cater to the growing number of Muslim holidaymakers seeking halal food and services.

Meanwhile, Najib said Malaysia had moved up five spots to be in the Top 20 list of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Business Environment Rankings.

"This is a positive indication of our economic liberalisation efforts and a testimony to the ongoing success of the Government and Economic Transformation Programmes.

"Let us aim for Top 10!," he said.

The report, released in May, ranked Malaysia as 19th out of 82 countries as the best places to do business in.

Malaysia came in ahead of countries like the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and Japan, showing an improvement of five places after ranking 24th for the 2009-2013 period.