Indonesia favored for investment

Indonesia favored for investment

JAKARTA (JP): Executives in Australia consider Indonesia the best investment destination in Southeast Asia, revealed Asia Business News (ABN) and the Far Eastern Economic Review's Asian Executives Poll.

The poll was based on 300 top executives from 10 different countries and territories in Asia.

Of the executives polled in Australia, 38.5 percent favor Indonesia, followed by the Philippines (19.2 percent) and Thailand (15.4 percent).

At the opposite end, 44 percent of the executives polled in Australia say Vietnam is the least attractive investment prospect in Southeast Asia.

Of the respondents from Japan, 32.1 percent think that Thailand offers the best investment opportunities, followed by Malaysia and the Philippines (17.9 percent each), Singapore and Indonesia (14.3 percent each) and Vietnam (3.6 percent).

Nearly half of the executives polled in Japan rate Brunei as the least attractive site in which to invest.

South Korean executives agreed with their Japanese counterparts and reckon Thailand and Malaysia offer the best prospects, and rate Brunei as the least attractive investment spot in Southeast Asia.

The majority of Asian executives polled think their public servants generally do a good job, but a little over a quarter reckon they fall short of the mark.

Of the respondents in Taiwan and the Philippines, 60 percent think their countries' civil service is inefficient, as do more than 37 percent of respondents in Thailand. In contrast, one in five executives polled in Hong Kong and half of Singapore respondents gave their civil service top marks.

Most respondents in the region think corruption is endemic. One in five of those surveyed in the Philippines think corruption is rife in their civil service. A quarter of the respondents in Thailand think the same. (hen)