Corruption in Korea `average` compared to rest of Asia

Singapore has the lowest corruption rate in the economic sector in Asia, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, a survey has shown. South Korea was judged to have an ``average`` amount of corruption.

Unveiled Sunday by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), a Hong Kong credit rating agency, the poll was conducted among 700 businessmen in 12 Asian countries. The survey showed that Singapore received the lowest rating of 0.83 under a system that measures corruption on a scale of 0 to 10.

Japan received a rating of 2.50 for the second lowest total, followed by Hong Kong at 3.77 and Malaysia and Taiwan at 6.0 each. South Korea took sixth place among the 12 countries with 7.0 points. Vietnam had the highest total at 9.75 points, while Indonesia had 9.5, India 9.25, the Philippines 9.0 and China 7.88.

PERC said corruption remains a serious problem in most Asian countries. It said the governments of some countries do not recognize the seriousness of the problem and even take retaliatory steps against those who denounce corruption.