Fundamental changes within economies are needed to create arm’s-length relations between governments, corporations, and banks. We are taking risks when investing in the future, and risk-taking demands openness and truthfulness from the agents we employ. If investors and accountants can concur on the degree of disclosure that is morally right we may come to some global agreement on what constitutes corruption — but to do this we have to bring together those who advocate profit-making with those who see this as usury; and we have to care for the future in novel ways — unknown in the past – so as to allow firms to be locally inefficient (apparently) while preserving the environment.
This book looks widely at the prevailing situation in Asia and considers how little some governments are doing to guide their institutions towards probity and transparency. While fundamental changes are needed around the globe, it is in the developing nations that there is scope for radical change in the near future, as their institutions are re-created to meet the modern world. Once developed and functioning their managers will have the opportunity to facilitate and re-direct the institutions in the developed world, which happen to be more conservative than their own.
