Taiwan tied with Botswana this year in the world corruption index. Transparency International claims to have done 10 surveys here in Taiwan. Was anyone here involved with those surveys?
transparency.org/pressreleas … pi.en.html
If you compare Taiwan with other countries on the list it comes off quite well. Taiwan is no. 30 compared to Italy who’s no. 35 or Mainland China no. 66.
What surprises me more is that the US ranks no. 18 and is according to that list more corrupt than Hong Kong who ranks no. 14!!!
This low ranking shouldn’t surprise anyone after the fall of Enron and the discovery of other creative accounting scandals in the U.S. over the last couple of years. (I’m keeping this short and sweet in the new spirit of separating international politics from the Open forum.)
HOW DOES ONE MEASURE CORRUPTION???!!!
Isn’t there a lot of ‘gray area’ there? I mean, culturally speaking. What I’d call corruption here in Taiwan would not be construed as such by most locals. I think this was designed by ethnocentrics with nothing better to do with their time than to measure something that has no parameters…:-?
I was working for an Australian company and the project, in Taiwan, became a nightmare because the Taiwan agent paid the wrong guy.
He was so insulted that he refused to let the situation be corrected (This is a particularly Taiwanese trait in my experience (how many noses do you have to cut off))
To be more specific - we offer first guy keep wjhat he got - right guy get what he expect - but there was a face problem somewhere
I thought Taiwan came off pretty well. 4th in Asia (2nd if you don’t include small city states). Behind the mroe advanced Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, yet well ahead fo the sdimlarly developed (more developed?) South Korea. Also ahead of European countries liekItaly, Hungary and Greece.
Brian
[quote]HOW DOES ONE MEASURE CORRUPTION???!!!
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After looking though the web site it appears that Transparency International uses several indicators. The one that probably resulted with Taiwan lower on the list this year is the bribe paying and graft that is so wide spread here in Taiwan. I don
[quote]Was anyone here involved with those surveys?
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– EOD
It’ll cost you some guanxi to find out. 
Officially it is illegal in Australia (and USA too I think) to pay bribes in another country, which is why you have joint venture partners or agents.
That’s why the agents always say they are doing me a big favor.