Taiwan made significant headway in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2016 report, thanks to a faster processing of electricity and construction permits, the National Development Council said yesterday.
Taiwan was ranked in 11th place in the latest annual survey of 189 economies, up eight places from last year and the best showing since the bank initiated the survey in 2005, the institute’s Web site said.
“The government will continue to adopt measures and legal revisions to help companies conduct business more smoothly and efficiently,” the council said in a statement.
Taiwan has risen 50 places over the past seven years, after slumping to 61th in 2008, which alerted the government to the need for change, the council said.
The Doing Business survey measures regulatory quality and efficiency in areas such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
The survey placed Taiwan second worldwide in getting electricity and sixth in terms of dealing with construction permits.
The nation made the greatest advancement in ranking in terms of enforcing contracts — skyrocketing from 93th place to 16th — which the council said was basically due to the removal of unfavorable measurements.
It also improved in the registering property and protecting minority investors categories, the survey said.
However, Taiwan plummeted from 35th place to 65th in the ranking on trading across borders, which again the council attributed to changes in methodology.
It also fell in terms of starting a business, paying taxes, getting credit and resolving insolvency, the survey said.
Several of Taiwan’s major trading rivals fared better in this year’s survey, with Singapore coming in first, South Korea in fourth place, followed by Hong Kong in fifth, although Japan finished in 34th place and China in 84th due to complicated procedures and longer waiting periods required for starting a business.
The council said the government is taking steps to improve the nation’s rankings, with judicial authorities drawing up measures to streamline bankruptcy applications, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to begin online reviews of applications for business start-ups, which would save firms money.
Financial authorities are looking to the US and the UK for ways to provide more flexibility to small and medium-sized enterprises seeking secured loans, the council said, adding that the Ministry of Finance last month introduced an electronic custom-clearing service for exports, cutting the time and costs involved for exporters.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the