BY ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
A LEADER of the Philippine Business Leaders
Forum (PBLF) yesterday said the Philippines has become the
most corrupt country in the region, imperiling efforts to
attract foreign investors and keeping those who are already
here.
In an interview at the sidelines of an
Asian Institute of Management Policy Center forum, PBLF chair
and CEO Michael Clancy said "the level of corruption here and
the stink of it is much greater here than I have ever
witnessed."
Clancy, who has lived in Hong Kong, Korea
and Taiwan, said companies doing business in the region allot
about "10 percent" of costs for "facilitation" or bribes.
He said in the Philippines, the figure is
50 percent.
PBLF boasts of a membership of about 240
executives representing 40 multinational corporations
operating in the country.
Clancy said among businessmen, the
overwhelming concern nowadays is good governance.
"Security would be one percent, and
corruption is 99 percent," he said. "Because of the level of
corruption some people have pulled out (of the country)."
Clancy said low confidence in governance
has resulted in weaker inflows of investments: "In terms of
putting new investments, they are looking at somewhere else in
Asia," he said.
He said the NBN-ZTE issue is "just one more
(incident) and each one of them drives another nail into the
coffin. What it does is that people are thinking about the
Philippines and they would say, 'forget it.'"
He said that while most Western countries
are betting on China, they also have backup areas.
"But at the moment, that backup is not the
Philippines," said Clancy. He named Malaysia, Thailand and
Australia as the second choice after China.
Clancy also said that the Philippine
government rejected "pointblank" a European investment
delegation two years ago which sought to look at business
prospects.
He said government representatives told the
European delegation that "we don't need your money anymore, we
have China now."
"`We can get all the money we need from China.' That's what
we were told," said Clancy.
