Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The most corrupt system in the Political and Economic Risk Council Asian continent is the Philippines. That’s according to recent investigations conducted by the Hong Kong based centre Political and Economic Risk Council (Perc), in a report published March 13th last. The Council report states that “politician’s empty promises to combat corruption have tired investors”.
The data was collected from interviews with over 1,476 business men who are operative throughout the Asian continent. Results shoe that Manila “has the worst track record among foreign investors”, whereas China, Indonesia and Vietnam have progressed in their fight against corruption.
According to investors Hong Kong and Singapore are the “economically cleanest” countries, but the latter’s situation “is worsening because foreign investors taking advantage of the Asian corruption seek refuge for their illicit earnings in Singapore, where thanks to the presence new industries they have found the a haven for recycling their money”.
In fact Indonesia followed by Thailand found the second place in the survey. The Perc has confirmed that the campaign of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to combat corruption “has produced some ‘positive results, but is still swimming upstream”.
In Thailand corruption has worsened even if some improvement is expected following Septembers military coup which unseated Prime Minister Shinawatr, and saw the military junta was assumed power promising to combat illegal trafficking. Despite this the Council maintains that “there is no reason to believe that their behaviour will be more transparent than there predecessors”.
The report puts China in seventh place among the continents most corrupt nations while Vietnam is in tenth place. These countries “have improved their placing, but this improvement could be due to the fact that there is no open debate on corruption”. In fact, “mass media, be it Chinese or Vietnamese are strictly censured and the only bad news that these governments allow published are those considered right for the general public”.
