Hong Kong has surpassed Singapore to become the least bureaucratic region in Asia, a poll of expatriates working in 12 Asian countries shows.

Hong Kong’s rating for cutting red tape leapt from 3.1 to 1.9.

The bureaucracy scale ranges from zero to 10, with higher figures indicating a civil service more heavily bound in red tape.

Hong Kong’s Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. conducted the survey. The questions were based on how expatriates perceived the civil service in the Asian states in which they worked.

Singapore, rated the least bureaucratic country last year, has also improved but by a lesser degree. Its grade of 2.8 last year improved slightly to 2.5. It now holds second place.

Other areas covered by the study were India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

Expatriates working on the mainland found that the civil service was still heavily bureaucratic, with a rating of 8.7. It was followed only by India at 8.9. Last year, the mainland and India rated 7.8 and 9, respectively.

James Sung, principal lecturer in the School of Continuing and Professional Education at City University of Hong Kong, said the findings caught him by surprise, although Hong Kong and Singapore have traditionally been considered the least bureaucratic areas in Asia.

Describing Hong Kong’s improvement as dramatic, Sung said he believed the jump was related to increased efforts by the government to respond to social aspirations.

“In the past two years, Hong Kong has become more political and there exists a sense of crisis among civil servants. As a result, they have become more ready to respond to the pleas of society,” Sung said.

“Increased privatization of more government services also plays a role in it,” he said. “For many, there is no longer the ‘iron rice bowl’ theory.”

Sung noted that more senior officials have been proactively reaching out to the business community lately and this helped to create a better perception among expats doing business in Hong Kong.

However, the same study indicates that many expatriates feel the civil service has become less efficient in Hong Kong. That rating slipped from 3.4 in 2003 to 3.5 this year, the second consecutive year of decline. In 2002, the efficiency rating was 3.3.

In terms of civil service efficiency, Singapore leads the pack with a score of 1.6, followed by Japan (2.1) and Hong Kong. The Chinese mainland ranks fifth.

Although the results were at the cost to the civil service of efficiency, Sung said officials had become more open-minded.

Citing the study findings, Civil Service Secretary Joseph Wong said in a letter to all civil servants that “while we should take pride in the high rating achieved in the survey, there is no room for complacency.”

“According to the most recent survey by the same institution, Hong Kong continues to have the best reputation for holding bureaucracy to a minimum. However, the perception of the efficiency of the Hong Kong civil service has declined slightly since 2002,” Wong wrote.

He said the government was keen to promote a customer-oriented culture in the civil service, and urged civil servants to submit suggestions to improve efficiency and service quality.

(China Daily August 4, 2004)