Taiwan's economic competitiveness continued to decline over the past year, with poor scores in terms of institutional infrastructure, causing the country to slide to 13th place this year in the World Economic Forum's annual rankings, down from eighth place last year.
The nation's ranking also fell from being the second-most competitive economy in Asia last year to fourth place this year, after Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, according to a poll released yesterday.
The poll was conducted for the 27th consecutive year, but only for the second year using a new formula, the forum said.
While Taiwan fared well in terms of innovation and higher education, and performed modestly in the category for public health services and macroeconomics, poor institutional infrastructure held the country back, the forum said.
South Korea also saw its ranking drop five places, to 24th this year from 19th place last year, the poll showed.
The US lost its position as the world's most competitive economy to Switzerland as budget and trade deficits prompted a slide to sixth in the rankings.
Switzerland jumped from fourth place last year and Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore all overtook the US with Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK rounding out the top 10 in the poll.
In terms of emerging markets, China dropped six places from last year to 54th.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RSS