Three Asia Pacific countries appear in the top half of a league table
drawn up in a competitiveness and responsibility report by the
international think-tank AccountAbility.
The Responsible Competitiveness Index, the centrepiece of the report,
attempts to indicate how a nation’s corporate responsibility programmes
and policies affect its competitiveness in international markets. In a
list dominated by European nations, Japan takes 14th place, China is
40th and India 44th.
More than 80 nations were assessed for their degree of corruption,
civic freedom, environmental management and corporate governance. The
results were combined with the World Economic Forum’s Global
Competitiveness Index to produce the AccountAbility index.
Simon Zadek, AccountAbility’s chief executive, observed that corporate
responsibility and social partnership, ‘far from being a drag on
competitiveness, can in fact drive it’.
Zadek said: ‘We expect that countries including China and the
eastern European nations, which currently trade on low cost, will take
a more proactive approach to responsible business as they move into
higher-value markets and need to differentiate themselves.’
