The nation's investment environment ranked fifth among 50 nations surveyed by Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) SA, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
With a score of 72, Taiwan shared the fifth place with Norway on the Profit Opportunity Recommendation (POR) scale, which is composed of three evaluation factors: an operations risk index, a political risk index and a remittance and repatriation factor.
Switzerland took the first place with the best investment environment, followed by Singapore, the Netherlands and Japan, the ministry said. In Asia, Taiwan remained in third place after Singapore and Japan, the ministry said.
The BERI survey is used by international traders and foreign enterprises to gain insights into a nation's investment environment. According to the ministry, Taiwan was awarded the highest level of 1A on the POR scale in BERI's first business-risk service report this year.
Among the three indexes, Taiwan scored the highest ratings for remittance and repatriation, with a factor of 84, bolstered by the nation's strengthening capability to earn foreign exchange and sound policies regulating foreign exchange, the ministry said.
But the political risk index dragged down Taiwan's overall ranking in the wake of China's passage of its "Anti-Secession" Law in March, the ministry said.
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