Taiwan has been ranked second in Asia in business sophistication, enhancing the country’s productivity and competitiveness, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said on Saturday, citing a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Taiwan’s business sophistication scored 5.22 on a scale of 1 to 7 in the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 released in September, the 13th highest worldwide and the best ranking Taiwan has obtained since 2005.
In Asia, Taiwan’s business sophistication was ranked second only to Japan, ahead of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and China.
CRITERIA
The criteria used by the WEF to evaluate business sophistication include local supplier quantity and quality, state of cluster development, nature of competitive advantage and value chain breadth.
Others are control of international distribution, production process sophistication, extent of marketing and willingness to delegate authority.
Taiwan’s overall competitiveness ranking improved five notches to 12th place from last year.
The report attributes Taiwan’s significant progress to the fact that the country has fully developed into an innovation-driven economy — the third and most advanced stage of development as defined by the Global Competitiveness Index framework.
SALARIES
Meanwhile, a record number of Taiwanese businesses froze their salaries last year as they were impacted by the effects of the global economic crisis, a government survey released on Friday showed.
As many as 86 percent of the polled firms said they suspended wage increases last year, up from 76.3 percent in 2007, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said in a statement.
It marked the highest level since the government started such surveys in 1997.
The survey, covering nearly 9,600 companies, said about 4 percent of the firms cut wages last year, the highest level in six years.
crisis
“The survey reflected the impact of global financial crisis, which led to a worsening domestic economy in the second half of 2008,” the directorate general said in the statement.
Last year, employees of only 10.9 percent of the businesses enjoyed wage hikes, the lowest level since 1997, the survey said.
Taiwan’s economy contracted 7.54 percent in the second quarter, following a 10.13 percent fall recorded in the first quarter.
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