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Hong Kong, Singapore
have top judiciary
Posted by luxuryasiahome on September 14, 2008
REGIONAL financial centres Hong Kong and Singapore have the best
judicial systems in Asia, with Indonesia and Vietnam the worst,
a survey of expatriate business executives showed.
The judiciary ‘is one of Indonesia’s weakest and most
controversial institutions, and many consider the poor
enforcement of laws to be the country’s number one problem,’
said the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).
Some court rulings in Indonesia have been ’so controversial that
they have seriously hurt confidence of foreign companies,’ said
PERC, without giving specific examples.
In the PERC survey, Hong Kong’s judicial system topped the vote
with a score of 1.45 on a scale that has zero representing the
best performance and 10 the worst.
Regional rival Singapore was in second place with a grade of
1.92, followed by Japan (3.50), South Korea (4.62), Taiwan
(4.93) and the Philippines (6.10).
Malaysia was in seventh place with a grade of 6.47, followed by
India (6.50), Thailand (7.00) and China (7.25). Indonesia got
the worst score of 8.26 after Vietnam’s 8.10.
The Hong Kong-based consultancy said 1,537 corporate executives
working in Asia were asked to rate the judicial systems in the
countries where they reside, using such variables as the
protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and corruption.
Transparency, enforcement of laws, freedom from political
interference and the experience and educational standards of
lawyers and judges were also considered.
‘Year after year our perception surveys show a close correlation
between how expatriates rate judicial systems and how they rate
the openness of a particular economy,’ PERC said.
‘Better judicial systems are associated with better IPR
protection, lower corruption and wealthier economies.’
The less favourable perception of China’s and Vietnam’s judicial
systems are rooted in political interference, PERC said, adding
that the Communist Party ‘is above the law in both countries.’
Despite India and the Philippines being democracies, expatriates
did not look favourably on their judicial systems because of
corruption, PERC added.
Malaysia’s judicial system has suffered a ’serious reputation
damage due to political interference,’ while expatriates in
Thailand ‘have serious doubts’ that moves to expand the
judiciary’s powers will be good for the country, it said.
PERC noted the survey involved expatriate business executives,
not political activists, so criteria like contracts and IPR
protection were given more weight.
‘This bias is possibly most obvious in Singapore,’ it said,
noting that the city-state’s top rating in the survey is not
shared by political activists, who have criticised the ruling
People’s Action Party (PAP) for using the judiciary to silence
critics.
‘In Singapore, the general perception of expatriates is that
local politics has not compromised the way commercial and
criminal law is conducted,’ PERC said. — AFP
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