It said over one in four ultra-rich Malaysians were seeking permanent residence abroad, making Malaysia’s emigration rate second only to China worldwide, Malay Mail Online reported.

It quoted Knight Frank Malaysia’s managing director Sarkunan Subramaniam as attributing this to a purported lack of opportunities here.

Launching the “The Wealth Report 2016”, he said “we are not as liberal as we used to be” and the situation could worsen in coming years if Malaysia continued down the road to conservatism.

He expected more Malaysians to move to “more liberal countries”.

Knight Frank described the ultra high-net-worth individuals as those with assets of US$30 million (RM124.8 million) or more.

Malay Mail Online also quoted Sarkunan as saying that ample business and education opportunities were available in in cities such as London and New York.

These were considered as “pull factors” that were luring wealthy Malaysia to leave their home country for greener pastures abroad.

In 2015, 2,206 EPF members took out a total of RM154.6 million before leaving the country, EPF chief executive officer Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan was reported as saying last month.

This number was 23% more than the previous year, when there were 1,787 withdrawals totalling RM99 million.

More than two million Malaysians are estimated to have emigrated since independence in 1957.