Anti-corruption organisation launches Chinese web pages

Transparency International recognises "vital importance of Chinese language"

Berlin, 30 June 1999

Transparency International has today launched its first web pages in Chinese. The new service available at http://www.transparency.org will provide basic information about the leading international anti-corruption organisation and its efforts to fight corruption. "By providing information in both simplified and traditional Chinese, TI is recognising the vital importance of the Chinese language," TI Chairman Dr Peter Eigen said at the occasion of the launch. He stressed that this was only a beginning and that the Chinese service would be continuously expanded. TI is also planning to shortly publish its National Integrity Source Book in Chinese. This anti-corruption manual is already available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Ukrainian. "Making our publications available in multiple languages is part of our effort to make the fight against corruption a truly international issue," Eigen said. Since the Internet plays a crucial role in TI's programmes, documents have already been available in English, French, German and Spanish. Access statistics of the TI website indicate that each day, thousands of people are visiting the organisation's web pages but that there is a wide discrepancy between the frequency of visits from individual countries.

TI website access statistics March to May 1999

March 1999		April 1999	May 1999	Average
China (People's Rep.)	92	55	15	54
Hong Kong	265	348	191	268
Macau	34		31	44
Taiwan	2,626	1,260	302	1,396
Total page visits globally	230,490	257,148	207,064	231,567

The TI Chairman recalled that in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong - at which the Chinese language webpages are principally directed - different approaches have been adopted in combating corruption. This is also reflected by the 1998 TI Corruption Perceptions Index as indicated below:

Country Rank	Country	1998 CPI score	Standard deviation	Surveys used
1	Denmark	10.0	0.7	9
7	Singapore	9.1	1.0	10
16	Hong Kong	7.8	1.1	12
25	Japan	5.8	1.6	11
29	Malaysia	5.3	0.4	11
29	Taiwan	5.3	0.7	11
43	South Korea	4.2	1.2	12
52	China	3.5	0.7	10
55	Philippines	3.3	1.1	10
61	Thailand	3.0	0.7	11
74	Vietnam	2.5	0.5	6
80	Indonesia	2.0	0.9	4
85	Camaroon	1.4	0.5	4

For further information or interviews...
please contact:

Mr. Jeff Lovitt, Head of Public Relations, at the TI Secretariat

Tel: +49-30-343 8200

Mr. Jeremy Pope, Executive Director, at our London office

Tel. +44 (020) 7610 1400; Fax. +44 (020) 7610 1550