Taiwan's reputation as a place to do business has been tarnished as instances of corruption continue to come to light, a report by the Heritage Foundation, a US-based think tank, said.
"Corruption remains widespread despite the Chen [Shui-bian,
The report was written in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal and published this week.
"The judiciary may be subject to corruption and political influence," the report said. "The effect of anti-corruption prosecutions over the past year should reflect considerable improvement during the coming year."
As a result of corruption, continued government interventions in the stock markets, a high government share of gross domestic product, and regulatory obstacles to free business, Taiwan's rating in comparison to other countries in the world fell from 20th last year to 29th. Taiwan's overall score covering 10 major economic policy areas worsened for the fourth year in a row to a figure higher than that in the early 1990s, the report showed.
However, authors of the report note that technical factors caused Taiwan's rating to drop even as the Chen administration was moving to liberalize economic and trade policies, partially in advance of WTO accession
The report takes into account the black market, based on the Global Corruption Report 2001. That report was compiled by Transparency International, an international anti-corruption organization financed largely by US and other Western governments and private foundations. The report ranked Taiwan 27th among 91 countries. That ranking actually improved from the previous year.
A series of new laws liberalizing business and trade activities in Taiwan were enacted during the summer, and the report did not reflect those changes, said John Tkacik Jr., of the Heritage's Asian Studies Center, one of the authors of the report. Changes include the relaxation of rules on foreign investment in the stock market and in real estate.
In addition, the government's crackdown on corruption was unearthing more corruption than was known to exist by report's authors in years past, Tkacik said.
"They didn't know how bad the problem was until the government began to lift up the rocks to expose hidden graft," he said.
As a result, Taiwan's "property rights score," which reflects judicial graft, dropped sharply this year.
Burdensome regulations also caused the "regulation score" to drop.
"The rule of law is not always strongly implemented, and both bureaucratic inefficiency and a lack of transparency can be troublesome," the report says.
The report quotes a US Trade Representative report that says there are a lack of arbitration mechanisms to settle contract disputes, adding that procedures for bidding on major procurement projects are inconsistent with international practices.
The report also quotes an American Chamber of Commerce statement issued in May, which said, "A number of recent scandals concerning legislators and high-ranking government officials have reinforced the need for the Chen administration's anti-corruption campaign, but success will obviously require considerable political will and long-term action."
One area that did improve was government's regulation of the banking and financial sector, in view of the privatization of previously state-owned banks and recent financial-sector reform legislation.
Chen's reforms may reap some rewards next year. "There's no doubt that next year there will be considerable improvements in trade and capital flows, as well as property rights, regulation and black-market scores," Tkacik said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group