The grey area of corruption in the business world
Hong Kong's levels of corruption in the business world are still low, but there are worrying signs of small favours increasingly being asked for
Large-scale corruption makes for headline news. However, away from the limelight, there are many forms of what might be called petty corruption, or maybe something that is not quite corrupt but nevertheless has a profound impact on business.
It cannot and should not be said that corruption is a major factor of doing business in Hong Kong, but this virus seems to be spreading - hopefully not to the extent of the systematic corruption that was commonplace in days gone by.
As matters stand, Hong Kong rates pretty well on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. The latest survey places Hong Kong in 15th place in the world league, whereas the mainland languishes in 80th place, so no need to guess where the bigger problem lies.
This survey, rather significantly, talks about perceptions because corruption is not, by its very nature, a straightforward matter. Only a fraction of corrupt activities are ever exposed and even then their full extent remains murky. But corruption is really not that hard to spot, to paraphrase the famous saying about rats: if it smells like corruption and looks like corruption, it most probably is corruption. As with rats, identification is not the main issue.
But it is not quite that simple, as any honest person running a business will confirm, because around the periphery of full-blown corruption are areas where favours are sought and relatively minor advantages are proffered.
The bulk of my company's business involves interaction with public educational institutions and, thankfully, they are overwhelmingly clean and have rules to ensure that their officials are scrupulous in avoiding any activity that is capable of being construed as being corrupt.