Taiwan retained its ranking as the fourth-best investment destination in the world’s major 50 countries behind Singapore, Switzerland and Norway, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday, citing a US-based research institute’s latest report.
In Asia, the country remained the second-best investment destination after Singapore, according to the survey conducted by Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) in April, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.
Among major Asian economies, Taiwan was ahead of Japan, which ranked No. 8 in the world, China, which ranked No. 13, and South Korea, which ranked No. 20, the report showed.
The BERI report came after an International Institute for Management Development (IMD) report last month showed that Taiwan was the sixth-most competitive country among the world’s 59 major economies.
Hong Kong and the US led the list compiled by the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, followed by Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said on May 18, citing the Lausanne, Switzerland-based institute’s report.
The latest BERI report was the first survey by the US research institute this year. The institute surveys the investment climate and competitiveness of the 50 economies in April, August and December every year, based on its evaluations of a country’s investment environment in three sub-indices: operational risk, political risk and foreign exchange risk.
MOEA said the latest report still provided Taiwan with a “1B” rating among the surveyed economies, which indicates the nation has a favorable investment environment.
“Taiwan is likely to remain the fourth-best investment destination in the world next year and until 2016,” the ministry said, citing the BERI report.
In the latest report, Taiwan retained its third-lowest place in the world in the operational risk index behind Singapore and Switzerland, and the second-lowest in Asia after Singapore.
With regard to the political risk sub-index, Taiwan saw its ranking move forward three places to the eighth-lowest in the world from the 11th-lowest in the previous survey.
In Asia, the nation remained as the second-lowest political risk for investors, after Singapore.
BERI attributed Taiwan’s lowering political risk to a diminishing military threat from China, thanks to an improved cross-strait relationship.
Taiwan also kept its foreign exchange risk in terms of both remittance and repatriation at the third-lowest in the world, behind Switzerland and Singapore, the report said.
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