Is Singapore highly transparent or not? Yes.

October 15th, 2007

In his recent speech on the rule of law, Lee Kuan Yew highlighted the importance of transparency to good government, and pointed out that Singapore ranks near the top of Transparency International’s corruption perception index. Experts note that there are different dimensions of transparency; they distinguish between two broad types: “economic and institutional transparency” (in which Singapore scores highly) and “political transparency” (in which Singapore rates poorly). Readers who want to understand these concepts in depth can watch a webcast of a recent Conference on Transparency and Governance organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation. The webcast shows Daniel Kaufman of the World Bank Institute discussing the types and measures of transparency and Garry Rodan of Murdoch University relating these ideas specifically to Singapore. View the webcast here. The Centre on Asia and Globalisation (CAG) is headed by Ann Florini, the editor of a recent book, The Right to Know: Transparency for an Open World. The book’s introduction can be downloaded at the CAG website or by clicking here.