Foreign and Major Entrepreneurs Have Opportunities for Corruption
Thursday, 01 March, 2007 | 16:44 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Transparency International (TI) Indonesia has stated that it is very easy for foreign and major entrepreneurs to carry out business involving corruption and collusion.

As for local, medium and small entrepreneurs, they have started to be conscious about carrying out clean business practice.

“The perception index of major and foreign entrepreneurs is poor,” said Todung Mulya Lubis, Head of the TI Indonesia council, Tuesday (27/2).

Todung explained that bribery was accepted as common in order to smoothen business.

Some parts of entrepreneurs' gratitude are based on officials’ concern over their low salaries.

According to him, entrepreneurs from Europe and United States usually avoid corruption.

The reason for this is that countries in Europe and US have already joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Therefore, said Todung, entrepreneurs can be acting against the law if they commit corruption in any country where they do business.

On the other hand, Asian and African entrepreneurs tend to be more permissive regarding corruption and bribery.
This is because Asian countries' values tend to be towards harmony, not competition.

“Pro-harmony has caused Asian entrepreneurs' attitude to be more permissive. This gives room for bribery and corruption,” said Todung.

KURNIASIH BUDI