Corruption rankings by businessmen in Asia

[minbo]

I came across this article on perception of corruption for doing business in countries in Asia that I thought was interesting. What really surprised me is that they rank China (PRC) as lower in corruption than South Korea, and India as lower in corruption than Thailand! Very different from my "clueless schmuck on the street" experiences in those countries.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=117400

Thai corruption 'worse since coup'

(BangkokPost.com) - Corruption in Thailand has grown worse in the past year in the opinion of foreign businessmen, who say only the Philippines now has more graft in the Southeast Asian region.

The survey by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) showed that on a scale of 1-to-10, Thai corruption last year was 7.64, and has sunk to its current status of 8.03.

The Philippines is worst in the region, with a score of 9.4, down from 7.8 last year.

At the other end of the scale is the paragon of cleanliness Singapore, which is even less corrupt now than it was a year ago - hard to imagine - with a score of 1.2, compared with 1.3 last year.

The survey ranked 13 nations, as perceived by foreign businessmen - i.e. people living or based outside the country being voted on. Thai businessmen were polled, but not on Thailand.

Here are the rankings, with last year's scores in brackets, least corrupt to worst.

1. Singapore, 1.20 (1.30)

2. Hong Kong, 1.87 (3.13)

3. Japan, 2.10 (3.01)

4. Macau, 5.11 (4.78)

5. Taiwan, 6.23 (5.91)

6. Malaysia, 6.25 (6.13)

7. China, 6.29 (7.58)

8. South Korea, 6.3 (5.44)

9. India, 6.67 (6.76)

10. Vietnam 7.54 (7.91)

11. Indonesia, 8.03 (8.16)

11. Thailand, 8.03 (7.64)

13. Philippines, 9.40 (7.80)

Thailand and Indonesia, both on a grade of 8.03, shared the spot as Asia's second most corrupt nations.

Thailand's image worsened slightly on last year while Indonesia's score was better.

The junta that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra as Thailand's prime minister last September promised to fight corruption "but there is no reason to be confident that its behaviour will be any cleaner," PERC said.

[Heyyu]

I'm not surprised. Doing business is Asia is about who you know and how to "win" their favor (usually through bribing).

So it doesn't matter if you're dealing with Chinese businessman, Korean businessman, Thai businessman, or Filipino businessman... it's the same shit. To be quite honest, I don't trust them. Then again, I don't trust businessman in general irregardless of their nation of origin.

But in the Asian countries there's so much competition that the price to succeed is even higher and the lengths they'll go to even greater. A big factor is the pressure. Oh, the pressure. The pressure itself is enough to make many cross the lines of acceptable ethics. Then again, the whole concept of ethics doesn't really apply there. Which is unfortunate.

[ZhuBaJie]

i wonder what they use as a definition of business corruption.

[sab]

I spent a year in South Korea doing business (three other years as a teacher/administrator) and am on my second year of business in the Philippines and I would agree to a certain extent. The thing is that business is just done differently here than back in the states or canada. It is all about who you know and how well you grease the wheels. Business people that come over here expecting to do business the same way as they back home are in for a shock. To me though it sometimes is a matter of accepting someone elses culture and not being so critical of how other cultures take care of their business. I found South Korea to be all about speed (look back in history at how the Hyundai shipping yards got started) and because of that there was some money that slipped under the table to various people. It also was the country of the room salon where the majority of business decisions seemed to be made in this setting especially when dealing with other Asian clients.

Concerning the PI, well speed isn't the Philippines forte. Contacts though are an essential part of doing business here. Without them you mine as well pack your bags and go home. It is a place where people put personal relationships over company loyalty any day of the week. It is not an easy country to do business in especially with tsismis flying around faster than a text message however the opportunities are without the limit of that glass ceiling hanging over your head.

End of the game the old saying, when in Rome.......


1.) Learn how to eat and enjoy the food of the country
2.) Learn how to handle your booze but don't drink more than your host
3.) Sing - Videoke - Nori Bang (the worse you are the better)
4.) Learn how to play golf (win when appropriate, lose when appropriate, but never by too much in either side)
5.) Contacts come after going through steps 1 - 4 an obnoxius amount of times

Sidenote - Learning the local language can help to a certain extent but I still use English. I have found that showing a certain weakness when it comes to language is actually a benefit because Korean/Tagalog are such 'difficult' languages (don't fight all the stereotypes people have about Americans). Better to know it and listen than speak it, find out more information.