'Corporate standards best in Singapore'

'Corporate standards best in Singapore'

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

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.

"Singapore has done an excellent job of promoting itself as a
place striving for better corporate governance," PERC said.

"The island has long had a reputation for being intolerant of
corruption and for having one of the more efficient, no-nonsense
regulatory systems in Asia."

Japan's second placing reflected an understanding by Western
expatriates of the differences between local corporate standards
and their own.

"By Japan's standards, the quality of corporate governance is
good but, by Western standards, the interests of shareholders are
neglected," PERC said.

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.

However, PERC said China and Vietnam were still the region's
worst performers in corporate transparency.

"Despite what our survey indicates, the quality of corporate
governance in Thailand is not the worst in Asia," the PERC report
said.

"The situation is head and shoulders better than in places
like Vietnam and China, where the stock markets are much more
poorly regulated and there is no real body of private listed
companies (as opposed to listed companies that are state-owned)
to compare with Thailand."

The PERC report was scathing for all the lower-ranked nations,
with an extract of the Indonesian summary representative of the
other assessments.

"What credibility most Indonesian banks and companies had in
terms of their reputations for corporate governance went out the
window with the 1997-98 financial meltdown," PERC said.

"Not only are companies poorly managed and the interests of
the minority shareholders frequently neglected, but also the
stock exchange regulatory authorities have a poor reputation,
accounting standards are not trusted and the legal system is
viewed more as a threat than an institution that offers
protection."

China fared little better in the report: "There have been so
many banking and corporate scandals in recent years in China that
perceptions regarding governance standards are very poor.

"China is anything but transparent."