Korea was ranked a record high position in business environment integrity

‘Korea was grouped as the country with low bribe risk, with business bribery risk decreasing for five consecutive year-

(November 26, 2021, ACRC)

The likelihood of bribe demand facing business people in Korea in relation to licensing and permit has decreased for five consecutive years.

Bribery Risk Matrix 2021 ranked Korea in the 21st of 194 countries, giving a score of 21 out of perfect score of 100 (lower score means lower risk of bribery).

Bribery Risk Matrix is an index that measures the likelihood that businesses operating overseas may encounter bribe demands when receiving government licensing and permit and other cases.

Bribery Risk Matrix has been getting attention especially when compared to the Corruption Perception Index which measures each country’s perceived level of corruption.

Korea’s ranking in Bribery Risk Matrix has risen for five consecutive years to take the 21th place this year, from the 33rd in 2017, 25th in 2018, and then 23rd place in 2019 and 22th in 2020. Notably, Korea was grouped as countries with ‘low’ level of bribery risk.

※ very low bribery risk countries (18 countries), low bribery risk countries(35) average bribery risk countries (81), high bribery risk countries(49), very high bribery risk countries

Bribery Risk Matrix was developed jointly by business risk management solution provider TRACE and research organization RAND Corporation of the U.S.

RAND Corporation is one of the representative think tanks in the US, a professional research organization that developed the Delphi method and suggested the Planning-Programming-Budgeting System (PPBS) and other research on administration․business management and social research.

ACRC Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui said, “The level of Korea’s integrity evaluated by the global society has been constantly improving for the recent few years in various international indices including CPI. Such progress reflects the achievements of the anti-corruption reform that the Korean government has pushed forward so far.”

She added, “We will actively promote the anti-corruption policy efforts and achievements to the international society, contributing to the enhancement of Korea’s national image and standing on the international community as high integrity country.

“In addition, with our anti-corruption experiences and expertise, the ACRC will discuss limits and areas for improvement in global corruption measurements such as Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with Transparency International which publishes the CPI. By doing so, ACRC will be active in leading international anti-corruption policy trend.”