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| Reference Material |
| Singapore, Japan, HK judged least corrupt economies in Asia; RP rating improves By the Agence France Presse March 11, 2002, Philippine Daily Inquirer SINGAPORE � Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong have the least corrupt economies in Asia, but corruption remains high in the rest of the region, and is getting worse in some places, a survey of business executives said. The Philippines, where the level of corruption was described by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) as �bad�, scored 8.0, an improvement on last year�s 9.0. PERC noted a �marked improvement� in the Philippines after President Macapagal-Arroyo took over from Joseph Estrada last year, but stressed that Manila�s score remained well below the average grade of 5.0���.. In a survey of 1,000 expatriate businessmen working in Asia, Singapore again emerged as the least corrupt among the 12 Asian economies covered. The city state, along with Japan and Hong Kong were the only economies to have above-average scores���. In a scale of one to 10, with one being the best possible score, Singapore was graded 0.90, followed by Japan (3.25) and Hong Kong (3.33). �Of the countries covered here, only Singapore really stands out as having a reputation that matches or even surpasses that of developed Western economies like the US, the UK and Australia,� (PERC) said. The rest scored below the average grade of five. Malaysia was judged the fourth least corrupt with a score of 5.71, better than the 6.0 it got in 2001, followed by South Korea with 5.75, down from 7.0 last year. Taiwan was graded 5.83, beating China�s 7.0, which was an improvement on its 7.88 rating in 2001. Indonesia was seen as the most corrupt with a grade of 9.92, its worst score since the survey started in 1995. India was the second most corrupt with a score of 9.17, slightly down from 9.25 last year. Vietnam got the third worst score of 8.25, but this was sharply down from 9.75 in 2001. �It is hard to believe that the problem of corruption in Indonesia could grow worse, but that is what is happening. The entire national legal system is in shambles, so the courts do not offer much protection,� the Hong Kong-based PERC said��.. ***** |