China Ranks #72 Amongst All The  Corrupt Nations

Corruption costs China as much as $86 billion a year and poses one of the most serious threats to the nation’s economic and political stability, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said. Bribery, kickbacks and theft account for about 10% of government spending and transactions, even though the state has more than 1,200 laws and directives against corruption.

China, the world’s fastest growing major economy, ranks No. 72 in Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index of 180 countries. The government in Beijing had 27 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) of unexplained spending last year, the National Audit Office said in a statement last month. Chinese President Hu Jintao has fired several top officials, including Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu, as part of an anti- corruption drive and has set up an agency to tackle graft.

Corruption is concentrated in areas with extensive state involvement, such as infrastructure projects, real estate, government procurement and financial services.  The direct costs of corruption could be as much as $86 billion a year, or 3% of gross domestic product, based on the conservative assumption that 10% of the land lease revenues, fixed investments and government spending is stolen or misused.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Asia, China, Political, That's Life, The Greed Wagon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.