US-based Forbes magazine rated Taiwan’s business conditions as the 26th-best worldwide this year, maintaining the same ranking it received last year.
The latest “Best Countries for Business” report, seen online yesterday, describes Taiwan as a “dynamic capitalist economy with gradually decreasing guidance of investment and foreign trade by the authorities.”
The report, the fourth of its kind released by the magazine, said Taiwan ran a large trade surplus and that its foreign reserves were among the world’s largest.
However, the recently inaugurated direct air, shipping and travel links with China were likely to increase Taiwan’s economic interdependence on China, the report said.
Among the 11 indicators used by the magazine in assessing business conditions, Taiwan performed best in terms of innovation, ranking seventh worldwide, followed by technology at 15th and monetary freedom at 16th.
Taiwan’s market performance is rated 27th, property rights 28th and investor protection 30th. It ranks 32nd in terms of both corruption and personal freedom. The country was ranked 39th in terms of trade freedom, 66th in terms of its tax burden and 101st for bureaucratic red tape.
A total of 127 economies are compared and evaluated in the annual report.
The top 10 countries this year are Denmark, the US, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, the UK, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong and Norway, in that order.
Among these countries, New Zealand, Australia and Norway are new to the top 10, with Finland, Ireland and Switzerland falling off the top 10 list.
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