This was the third year we have asked this question, and we expected the average score in most countries to be somewhat better this year than last. This did not turn out to be the case, however. In fact, the score was worse in 10 of the 11 Asian countries surveyed.
Transparency is a very vague word and can mean different things to different people.
Apparently, there can never be enough of it. We did not try to define transparency for our survey audience. We then asked respondents to rate on a scale of zero to 10 the extent that they perceived the lack of transparency of the business environment in the country in which they were working constituted an impediment to their company when it came to doing business. We also asked them to rate their home country. A grade of zero was supposed to represent the best case or a very transparent environment, a grade of five was supposed to be an average level of transparency, and a grade of 10 represented the worst case or a very non-transparent environment.