Is this how Asia has re-invented? Three Asian countries make the list of the 10 world’s worst places to do business in. Latin America has three, Africa two and Eastern Europe two.
-Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, is one of the most difficult places to start a business. It takes one and half months to launch a business in Indonesia, nearly three and half times longer than the average for all OECD countries. Getting electricity in the world’s fourth most populous nation also takes 20 days longer than in the rest of East Asia and the Pacific. Indonesia’s infrastructure problems have long been blamed for hampering its growth.
-India, the world’s fourth largest economy, has seen good GDP growth, but it is also one of the most difficult countries to do business in. Stories of corruption in the government are rampant in India and it is the second worst country in the world when it comes to enforcing a business contract, behind East Timor. It takes on average of nearly four years to enforce a contract through India’s courts, in comparison to three years in the rest of South Asia and more than one year on average in OECD countries.
-The Philippines is the lowest ranked Asian country on the list of the most difficult places to do business in. It attracted just 2.5 per cent of the $76.5 billion of foreign direct investment that flowed to the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2010. Despite having massive untapped mineral wealth, a key geographical location between Southeast and North Asia and a large, growing English-speaking population, the country has fallen behind its neighbours in economic growth.
Foreign businesses are wary of the Philippine’s unstable legal system, violence, and bureaucracy. Its ease of doing business ranking from the World Bank fell a further two spots this year from 2010. The country also ranks among the lowest when it comes to starting a business, and resolving insolvency, with the latter taking more than five and half years, compared with an average one year and seven months in OECD countries.
Indonesia, India and Philippines have a lot more in common than corruption.
Life is cheap. Cheaper even than the proverbial chips.
I was recently driving across Indonesia and close to traffic lights and intersections, I saw many mothers begging, with baby in arms. One was particularly sad, the sun was hot, she was sitting on the curbside and the baby was agitated and clearly distressed. An adult could not endure the heat for long but for a baby of less than 1 year, malnourished without even a bottle of water, it was unforgivable. Eid al-Adha.
I have seen small raggy-@ssed barefooted children under 5 years old in Manila, dragging sacks of recyclable garbage across a very busy road near the extensive slums, all for pennies per day. Children so young should not be allowed anywhere near a busy road. Such kids should be properly cared for, up to mischief, not risking their lives and missing their childhood for a few cents per day. There are Catholic services along the waterfront, and those without, give whatever they have for the wicked cardinals of Rome.
Drive through any India city late at night, especially Bombay (sorry Mumbai
) and you will see bodies strewn all over the sidewalk sleeping through the pains and cramps caused by starvation. Apartheid lives here (and Israel) and India's caste system is passively accepted by our high minded, low grade political masters in the west.
If ever a spring revolution was necessary, it is in these countries.
If ever political masters deserved to be dragged through the streets and strung from lamp posts, it is in these countries.
The wealthy minority has absolutely no time for their brothers and sisters and their children. This concept is unimaginable to the majority.
