Vietnam safer for business, Indonesia most dangerous: PERC
Vietnam safer for business, Indonesia most dangerous: PERC
Tan Ee Lyn, Reuters, Hong Kong
Business executives are increasingly uneasy about security
risks in Asia-Pacific countries which they previously considered
safe, with Vietnam now considered a safer place than anywhere
else in the region, including the United States.
The survey by the Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC)
found confidence in Australia, Japan and Singapore had fallen
sharply since the Sept. 11 air attacks on the United States.
Ninety executives from the tourism and hotel industries were
polled in the survey, which was conducted last week, PERC said on
Wednesday.
Australia, which had been ranked the safest location in PERC's
last survey before the attacks, fell to third place while Japan
slipped from second to fifth spot.
Singapore, which has been seen as the fourth safest place in
the region, fell to the second last spot in the survey, just
above neighboring Indonesia, which has been racked by anti-U.S.
protests since American forces began attacking Afghanistan.
The U.S. fell from third to eighth.
Hong Kong was considered the second safest place in the
region, up from fifth in the previous survey.
"Interestingly, the biggest deterioration is not in countries
that had poor scores prior to Sept. 11, but in countries where
scores were particularly good before - places like Australia, the
U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan," PERC said.
"The sense of security that was evident before the terrorists
struck New York and Washington in these relatively prosperous
economies has vaporized," it added.
"In the case of Singapore, the marked worsening of perceptions
probably reflects much greater awareness of the island's
vulnerability to social disruption in neighboring Malaysia and
Indonesia," PERC said.
Vietnam stood out as the country believed to have the least
risk of unrest as it is not really exposed to social problems of
its neighbors.
Post-Sept 11 Pre-Sept 11
Vietnam 4 4.5
Hong Kong 4.44 2.83
Australia 4.67 1
Taiwan 4.8 3
India 5 6
Japan 5 1.5
Thailand 5 4.5
China 5.33 5.25
South Korea 5.5 4
U.S. 6 1.92
Malaysia 6.8 5
Philippines 7 6.5
Singapore 7.5 2.17
Indonesia 8.5 8.5
The worst possible grade is 10, which indicates places where
respondents feel most threatened by risks of social unrest