Indian bureaucracy the worst in Asia: Survey

Indian bureaucracy the worst in Asia: Survey
3 Jun 2009, 1509 hrs IST, REUTERS

SINGAPORE
Singapore's civil servants are the most efficient among their Asian peers, a business survey on 12 economies released on Wednesday showed, but they tend to clam up unhelpfully when things go wrong.

India's "suffocating bureaucracy" was ranked the least-efficient by the survey, which said working with the country's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.

"They are a power centre in their own right at both the national and state levels, and are extremely resistant to reform that affects them or the way they go about their duties," Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy said in a 12-page report of Singapore's bureaucracy.

Singapore, the island-state was ranked first for a third time in a poll of 1,274 expatriates working in 12 North and South Asian nations on the efficiency of bureaucrats in those countries. The poll was last held in 2007.

"During normal times, when the system is not stress-tested, it operates very well," PERC said.

"However, during difficult times - or when mistakes are made that reflect badly on the system - there is a tendency among bureaucrats to circle the wagons in ways that lack transparency and make accountability difficult," the report said.

Thailand, despite four years of on-off street protests and a year of dysfunctional government was ranked third.

Ranking by most efficient to least efficient economies:

Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India.

I never knew tht India Ranked last!!Thnks for the info !

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yeah sure it takes 3 months to register and start a company here.. where as it takes 9 hrs to do the same in singapore