All tied up

Those of us who have lived, worked and travelled in Asia will be familiar with the bewildering bureaucratic hurdles to be negotiated.  While living in China, for example, I particularly enjoyed the occasional visits from my local friendly PSB officer who would pop in for a cup of tea, check that I was still living there and then wander off to parts unknown.

According to the Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, however, China has nothing on India when it comes to bureaucracy.  The firm has surveyed over 1,300 executives in Asia in order to rank countries in the region.  The ranking is on a 10 point scale, with 10 being the worst possible score.  India scored 9.21, suggesting that it is the most bureaucratic country in Asia.  China, while no stranger to red tape, placed fifth with a score of 7.11.

This will doubtless be to the chagrin of India’s leaders who are seeking to compete with Beijing in all fields, including economically.  To India’s credit, it continues to post strong economic growth figures, but this report suggests that its impressive economic performance is in spite of the bureaucratic system, not because of the environment it creates.

The report links bureaucracy to corruption and in a country in which it is impossible to achieve anything without the assistance of officials, this is no surprise.  Such bureaucracy and corruption smothers the economy and prevents it from competing with China as strongly as it could.

At the other end of the scale, Singapore was rated least bureaucratic with a low score of 2.5, reflecting the enviable reputation that state’s civil service enjoys.

The full list is as follows:

India (9.21)
Vietnam (8.54)
Indonesia (8.37)
Philippines (7.57)
China (7.11)
Malaysia (5.89)
South Korea (5.87)
Japan (5.77)
Taiwan (5.57)
Thailand (5.25)
Hong Kong (3.53)
Singapore (2.25)