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Marcal Joanilho

Hong Kong has been ranked sixth on a list of countries whose companies are most likely to bribe foreign officials to win deals.

Russia scored worst in the survey, followed by China, Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, the United States and France.

The survey was conducted by Transparency International (TI), a German-based organisation.

TI chairman Peter Eigen said the Bribe Payers Index (BPI), based on a Gallup poll of 835 business executives from 15 emerging economies, showed firms from Russia and China were paying bribes on an 'exceptional and intolerable scale'.

It suggested that despite the passing of international conventions and laws in individual countries against such practices, the payment of bribes by companies based in developed as well as developing countries remained a huge problem.

TI advisory council chairman Kamal Hossain, a lawyer and former Bangladesh foreign minister, told a lunch meeting at the Foreign Correspondents' Club that lax enforcement of these laws and conventions enabled companies to offer bribes overseas.

Responding to the rating, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said it was the first time the SAR had been included in the Bribe Payers Index as a separate entity. On the first index issued by TI in 1999, China and Hong Kong were rated together.

'The index relies mainly on responses to a question on how likely companies from the 21 selected exporting economies are to pay bribes to win or retain business,' the ICAC said.

'It reflects perceptions, not necessarily the actual situation. Nonetheless, we will take the findings of the index, as well as other surveys, as a reference,' it said.



SAR firms sixth likeliest to give bribes for deals, survey says