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Home to a number of rapidly developing economies, corruption in the private sector is of key concern to many countries in the Asia Pacific. Corruption risks in the private sector include corporate fraud, manipulating accounts, paying kickbacks to public officials and insider training.

A well functioning private sector plays a pivotal and expanding role in improving social and individual well-being – by producing the economic wealth that lifts people out of poverty and expanding access to health care, education and other vital services. Corruption in the private sector limits its potential to contribute to the well-being of society and runs the risk of enriching a few at the cost of many, recklessly overexploiting the environment and disenfranchising and destabilising society.

TI chapters in the Asia Pacific carry out a number of activities to promote ethical business in their countries.

TI Australia worked together with the TI chapter in Thailand and national contact in Vietnam to run workshops for small and medium enterprisesin these countries, to showcase best practices to combat bribery.

TI China has run a programme on Promoting Transparent Procurement and Corporate Responsibility with businesses and organisations working in the construction sector.

TI Indonesia conducted research to map corruption risks in public procurement, focusing on the identification of regulatory gaps and assessing local business associations’ influence on the procurement process. The study reported that certain business associations exercise a near monopoly over public contracting. Consequently, it identified key areas of the regulatory framework in need of reform, and the need for national regulation on business associations.

The chapter arranged a series of focus group discussions with national business associations and regulating agencies to draft a national strategy on how to engage the private sector in curbing corruption. A forum was established with key business associations that agreed to engage in joint advocacy for necessary reforms.

TI Japan has been working with Japanese corporations to improve business ethics and compliance to standards of corporate social responsibility.

To combat foreign bribery, TI Japan held a symposium on Strategies dealing with the Corruption Risk for Overseas Projects, which compared anti-corruption measures implemented by corporations working in foreign countries around the world.

TI Korea (South) has taken up work to build coalitions with private sector and promote trans-sectoral anti-corruption and transparency coalitions. K-PACT (Korean Pact on Anti-Corruption and Transparency) is an initiative that embodies collective efforts of all sectors of the Korean society to eliminate corruption.

Consistently rated in TI’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, TI New Zealand has released a report entitled As Good as we are Perceived, to assess whether New Zealand businesses’ approach to bribery and corruption match up to the country’s international reputation.

TI Pakistan encourages companies to adopt TI’s policies for curbing bribery in their daily business activities. Seminars and workshops are conducted by the chapter with business leaders to discuss and provide inputs on the issue of corruption in the private sector.

Transparency Vanuatu is active in promoting good business practices in the private sector. In 2006, it distributed 1000 copies of the TI booklet "Business Principles for Countering Bribery" to private businesses.