RI second cheapest for business

RI second cheapest for business

Agencies, Hong Kong

Indonesia is the world's second cheapest country for operating a business, while Japan is the most expensive, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit study involving 31 key countries found Japan was the most costly in which to set up or operate a business due to high labor, rental and expatriate costs, followed by the United States and Germany, both of which have high labor costs.

Indonesia was the second cheapest after Hungary, according to the report which examines labor costs, business travel, costs for expatriate staff, corporate taxes, perceived corruption levels, office and industrial rents, telecommunications and transport costs.

The survey said Indonesia has benefited from many low cost categories, although it had the highest cost for perceived corruption.

Among other Asian countries, Australia was 12th with high labor costs and Hong Kong came in at 14th, despite having the lowest corporate taxes, followed by South Korea and Taiwan, the survey said.

But Singapore in 17th place was an even better value, benefiting from some of the lowest costs in terms of taxes, corruption, telecoms and transport.

Malaysia was in 25th place, India 27th, China 28th and Thailand 29th.

India had the lowest labor and expatriate costs of the 31 countries, but also suffered from a high level of corruption, as well as relatively high corporation taxes and rental costs, the study said.

Among other European countries, Britain ranked fourth, largely because of high transport costs and office rents, followed by Belgium, Sweden, France and the Netherlands.

Spain, ranked 11th, had the lowest costs in Western Europe, the Economist Intelligence Unit survey found.

At the bottom of the list, Hungary was the cheapest of all with some of the lowest labor costs, expatriate costs, telecoms and corporation taxes in the survey. It is cheaper than other Eastern European countries in the survey for all categories except for office and industrial rents.

The Czech Republic, ranked 23rd, and Poland, 24th, are also comparatively cheap places to do business, the survey found.

Argentina was the most expensive country of those from Latin America, ranking 13th overall.