Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Biz leader: Corruption spooks traders more than security risks in RP (7:55 p.m.)
MANILA -- Widespread corruption has deterred fresh investment in the Philippines more than security risks such as the communist and Muslim insurgencies, a foreign business leader said Wednesday.
Corruption has permeated most levels of government, damaging the country's international image and preventing it from getting some of the huge Western investments being drawn by China and other regional economic powerhouses, said Michael Clancy, who heads the Philippine Business Leaders' Forum, a club of 240 senior executives from 40 multinational companies.
The executives' companies are involved in oil, banking, logistics and services.
"It's not a country for the faint-hearted," Clancy told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on East Asian economic integration. "It's a country that you need to approach with caution.
Citing experiences by foreign businessmen he has met in Manila, Clancy said security risks constitute about 1 percent of their concerns.
"Corruption will be 99 percent," he said.
In the results of an annual survey released earlier Wednesday by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd., or PERC, the Philippines was seen as the most corrupt out of 13 Asian economies, receiving a 9.0 rating on a 0-to-10 scale, followed by Thailand at 8.0, and China and Indonesia at 7.98.
Still, corruption has not forced foreign companies to withdraw from the Philippines, Clancy said, but it has discouraged them from expanding and hampered the entry of new investors. Red tape and poor infrastructure are also key concerns, he said. (AP)
|
