Indonesia still poses occasional business hurdle

Indonesia still poses occasional business hurdle

TOKYO (AFP): Japanese find Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam "extremely backward" places to do business while Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand pose "occasional hindrances", according to a regional survey.

The survey by the Nikkei Industrial Daily also found that Japanese businessmen had "no particular complaints" with either Malaysia or Brunei.

Singapore was deemed an "excellent" place to do business and easily ranked first out of the 10 Southeast Asian countries covered in the survey of 34 Japanese companies with operations in the region. The companies surveyed included electrical machinery manufacturers, car makers and trading houses.

Respondents gave Singapore excellent marks in all but one of 12 categories covered, which ranged from transport, telecommunications and power infrastructure to human resources, living conditions and administration. In terms of technology, respondents said they only had no particular gripes.

Brunei, ranked second overall, has no particular problems in all areas except human resources, technology, living conditions and administrative transparency where respondents cited occasional obstacles to doing business, they said.

Malaysia, ranked third, received a similar assessment to Brunei with occasional hindrances also seen in the area of human resources along with traffic systems and electricity supplies.

Thailand, ranked fourth, has no particular problems with airports or technology but has occasional obstacles to doing business in all other areas except traffic systems which are considered extremely backward.

The Philippines, ranked fifth, is similar with occasional hindrances in all areas except traffic systems which are also extremely backward. But human resources were singled out for having no particular problems.

Indonesia, ranked sixth, has no particular problems with airports but has occasional obstacles in most other areas. Administrative efficiency and administrative transparency are, however, extremely backward.

Vietnam, ranked seventh, is perceived as being extremely backward in all areas except ports, telecommunications, human resources and living conditions where Japanese businessmen suffer only occasional hindrances.

Myanmar, ranked eighth, gets a slightly worse assessment with extremely backward conditions in all categories except human resources and living conditions where only occasional obstacles occur.

Laos and Cambodia are ranked ninth and 10th, perceived as being extremely backward in all areas. Cambodia won the distinction of having the most backward financial system among all of the countries surveyed and was the most underdeveloped nation in terms of administrative efficiency and transparency.