Malaysia had a score of 153, sharing the fifth group slot with Ireland, Canada, and New Zealand in the 2017 Passport Index.
The fifth placing indicates the high level of travel freedom for Malaysians. A Malaysian passport gives visa-free access to 151 countries.
The index is a global web-based ranking of the world’s most user-friendly passports. It’s main criteria is how many visa-free or visa-on-arrival countries can be visited by passport holders.
Last year, another index, by the World Economic Forum, put Malaysia on the eighth spot. That index ranked passports according to countries that can be visited without applying for a visa.
According to the latest ranking, Singapore and Malaysia are the only two nations in Asean to have user-friendly passports with regard to visa-free or visa-on-arrival entries.
Singapore was ranked number two, together with Sweden. Both had a score of 156.
Germany tops the list with a score of 157.
The passports at the bottom of the index are from Iraq (92), Pakistan (93) and Afghanistan (94).
South Korea, which was at number two in the previous index, fell to sixth place (152), while Japan rose to 4th place with a visa-free score of 154.
The visa-free score is calculated using three steps: counting the number of countries each passport holder can visit without a visa or where they can obtain a visa on arrival; comparing the two figures; and using the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index as a tie-breaker.
The index, which looked at 193 countries and six territories, was compiled by financial advisory firm Arton Capital.
New top 10 passport power ranking (by score ):
157 – Germany
156 – Singapore, Sweden
155 – Denmark, Finland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, UK, USA
154 – Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Portugal, Japan
153 – Malaysia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand
152 – Greece, South Korea, Australia
151 – Czech Republic, Iceland
150 – Hungary
149 – Malta, Poland
148 – Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia
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