Singapore tops yet another list

Singapore

Bustling Singapore has topped another expat survey, this time for efficient bureaucracy, in a survey conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.

The survey quizzed expatriate business executives on the bureaucratic efficiency of 12 of Asia’s chief business locations. The executives were asked to grade the areas on a 1-10 basis, with ten being the worst score. Whilst Singapore reigned supreme with a score of 2.53 the lowest score, 9.41, was given to India. Hong Kong came second in the survey (3.49) and Indonesia came second to last (8.59).

Red tape and bureaucracy are huge factors for travelling expats to deal with, India’s low score highlights a reluctance for foreign investment and a mass of problems for expats currently working there. Dr Gareth Price from the think tank Chathal House said that India’s problems came from a number of different sources: “Firstly, in a country with around 1.2 billion people, there are only 15 million government employees in India, which isn’t really enough for a smooth-running bureaucracy.”

“Furthermore, India’s bureaucracy is based on complicated and antiquated rules, which unfortunately for expat businessmen, many inspectors and government officials have a vested interest in leaving as they are. Old laws are rarely repealed, so if the government wants to, anything can be shut down. It’s certainly a system you’ll need advice on to get your head round”, he added.

At the other end of the spectrum Price lauded the work of Singapore “By contrast, Singapore has made a real effort to simplify its bureaucracy, and its popularity with businessmen in this survey is the result”, he said.

Over 1,000 senior and mid-level executives were quizzed in the PERC survey.