ABS-CBN - 1 hour 13 minutes ago
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines was rated the fourth most corrupt of 16 major Asia-Pacific investment destinations, according to a business survey released on Monday.
The survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy showed the Philippines ranking fourth from the bottom of the 16-nation list with a score of 8.06.
The country, which was ranked Asia's most corrupt country in the 2008 survey, had a rating of 7.0 last year, making it the sixth most corrupt nation last year.
Indonesia scored 9.07 out of 10 as the most corrupt nation in the 2010 survey, up from 7.69 points a year ago. The PERC survey polled 2,174 middle and senior business executives in Asia, Australia and the United States.
Cambodia was ranked second most corrupt, followed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, India, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Macao, Japan, the United States, Hong Kong, Australia and -- rated as the least corrupt in the survey -- Singapore.
The survey looked at how corruption affected different levels of political leadership and the civil service, and how major institutions fared in terms of corruption.
It also examined how corruption is perceived to affect the overall business environment, and how easy or difficult it is for companies to deal with the problem internally and externally when they encounter it.
Below is the corruption scores of 16 Asia-Pacific economies as seen in a survey of 2,174 expatriate business executives by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).
On a scale of zero to 10, zero is the best possible score, indicating the lowest level of corruption among politicians and civil servants.
1. Singapore, 1.42
2. Australia, 2.28
3. Hong Kong, 2.67
4. United States, 3.42
5. Japan, 3.49
6. Macau, 4.96
7. South Korea, 5.98
8. Taiwan, 6.28
9. Malaysia, 6.47
10. China, 6.52
11. India, 7.18
12. Thailand, 7.60
13. Philippines, 8.06
14. Vietnam, 8.07
15. Cambodia, 9.10
16. Indonesia, 9.27
With reports from Reuters and Agence France-Presse
