Taiwan's global competitiveness moved up one notch to the world's 11th spot this year, according to the most recent World Competitiveness Yearbook issued Thursday by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
After jumping five notches to the world's 12th spot last year from 2003's 17th, Taiwan's global competitiveness moved up again this year to 11th place among the 60 major countries surveyed, according to the yearbook.
The 11th spot is the best Taiwan has scored in terms of global competitiveness since 2000, officials from the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said.
The US heads the 2005 list, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, Iceland and Canada, in that order.
In Asia, Taiwan ranks only behind Hong Kong and Singapore, leading all other Asian counterparts, including Japan (21st), Thailand (27th), Malaysia (28th), South Korea (29th), China (31st) and India (39th), according to the officials.
China, Spain and Malaysia registered falls from last year's places.
China's fall was particularly unexpected as its economic growth has remained "red hot," CEPD officials said.
According to IMD authorities, negative comments and assessments on China have appeared in the IMD survey of business managers around the world for this year.
Many respondents have begun to cast doubts on whether China's domestic economy will continue to grow and they have pointed out some obstacles to the country's economic performance, including the shaky financial regime and unstable infrastructure and corporate management.
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