Survey: Corporate Standards Best In Singapore

By Agence France-Presse Singapore has the highest corporate governance standards in Asia while Vietnam and China suffer from the worst, according to a survey of expatriates doing business in the region. The Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) group, which carried out the survey, said the overall trend across Asia was improving slightly while corporate scandals in the United States were magnifying the region's progress. "To give Asia its due, the one country where perceptions have deteriorated the most in the past year is the U.S.," PERC said in a review of regional corporate governance standards. "Asia might have its problems with corporate governance but views have been fairly consistent over the years and the general trend has been better." PERC's survey ranked Singapore top of the list of clean business environments, ahead of Japan and Hong Kong. South Korea and Malaysia shared fourth spot, while the Philippines followed after recording a slight improvement in expatriates' perceptions. At the other end of the scale, Thailand, Indonesia and India were lumped together with Vietnam and China, and in some cases recorded even lower assessments than the communist countries. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2003