Question
Mr Seah Kian Peng: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how does Singapore fare in international benchmarks for business and political risks; and (b) whether this has changed over the past five years.
Oral Answer by Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry:
The Business Environment Risk Intelligence, or BERI, produces one of the most established reports benchmarking business and political risk, known as the Business Risk Service report, or BRS.
Singapore has been ranked first among 50 countries benchmarked in the BRS composite index from 2010 to 2012, reflecting the soundness of our operating environment for businesses, political risk profile and foreign exchange and external accounts’ positions. For the preceding 2 years from 2008 to 2009, Singapore was a close second to Switzerland.
As a component of the overall index, the BRS produces a separate index for political risk. Singapore has been ranked first for this component, which examines both internal and external sources of political risk, for all 5 years up to 2012.