SINGAPORE — Indonesia has the worst record when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) in Asia and Singapore the best, a survey of expatriate business people showed.

“Indonesia seems to have lost its momentum for cracking down on IPR abuses and making the system more compliant with international standards,” Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) yesterday said.

Indonesia was given the worst score of 8.5 out of a maximum 10 points compared to 11 other Asian economies in the PERC survey of 1,285 expatriate managers conducted between June and mid-August. Zero is the best possible score.

More advanced economies fared better, with Singapore heading the list with 1.5, followed by Japan (2.1), Hong Kong (2.8), Taiwan (3.8) and South Korea (4.1).

At the other end of the scale, Vietnam was second worst at 8.4, China scored 7.9, the Philippines 6.84, India 6.5, Thailand 6.17 and Malaysia 5.8.

The rankings largely reflect studies by the global software industry, which is alarmed by the easy availability of pirated movies and software in Asian cities despite governments’ pledges to crack down.

“Of the emerging Asian countries, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines are all poorly rated not only for their low level of IPR protection but also for such criteria as physical infrastructure, bureaucratic inefficiency and labor limitations,” PERC said.

Sought for comment, the chief of the Philippine agency in charge of protecting intellectual property rights said business sentiment should soon improve given initiatives in the pipeline.

“In 2009 alone, we confiscated billions [of pesos] worth [of fake branded products],” Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines Director-General Ricardo R. Blancaflor said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“But of course, seizures as just a small part of enforcement. There is still the judicial and penal systems,” Mr. Blancaflor conceded.

“I am very, very hopeful the Supreme Court special rules on IP courts will come out even earlier than end of the year,” he said.

The rules are needed to establish courts that will exclusively handle cases of IP right infringement, a move that is said deliver speedier decisions and also build competence due to specialization.

“I take this as a challenge. We have to show the rest of the world that we are the best,” Mr. Blancaflor said.

China also came under strong scrutiny because of the sheer size of its economy and the presence of large companies “capable of using pirated technology to compete in foreign markets,” PERC said.

“Countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia do not have this same ability to inflict global damage through IPR piracy as Chinese companies do.”