Thu, Sep 04, 2014 page1

• Taiwan’s competitiveness drops: WEF

  BLAMING ACTIVISTS? While the WEF identified inefficiency, corruption and labor inequality, a National Development Council analyst implicated civil movements

  • By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter
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  Taiwan’s global competitiveness fell two notches to 14th place this year, its worst showing since 2008, because of lower rankings in terms of goods market efficiency, business sophistication and innovation, a World Economic Forum (WEF) report said yesterday.

  The report said Taiwan’s “performance has been very stable over the past six years,” noting that its strengths include a capacity to innovate, highly efficient goods markets, world-class infrastructure and solid higher education and training.

  “In order to enhance its competitiveness, Taiwan will need to further strengthen its institutional framework, whose quality is undermined by some inefficiency within the government and various forms of corruption and will also need to address some inefficiencies and rigidities in its labor market,” the Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 said.

  As with other Asian countries, Taiwan can boost its competitiveness by encouraging and facilitating the participation of women in the workforce, the report said.

  Taiwan’s ranking in goods market efficiency dropped four places, from seventh last year to 11th this year, because buyers in the local goods market are considered to make their decisions based more on prices instead of “a sophisticated analysis of performance attributes,” the report by the Geneva-based organization said.

  Agricultural policy was also believed to be more of a burden to the efficiency of local goods market than a balance of interests among taxpayers, consumers and producers, the report said.

  Taiwan dropped two places to 10th this year in innovation because domestic companies are believed to have spent less on research and development, and the government’s spending is considered not to be conducive to innovation in the private sector, the report said.

  It also fell two spots — to 17th — in business sophistication because domestic companies are believed to have less control over international distribution and marketing, the report said.

  Taiwan was ranked as the fourth-most competitive in Asia this year, behind Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, the report said.

  Switzerland placed first in the most competitive category, followed by Singapore, the US, Finland and Germany.

  “The decline was partly because of recurring civil movements in Taiwan in recent years, which caused company managers who responded to the forum’s survey to have doubts about the nation’s prospects, economic condition and policy direction,” the National Development Council said in a news release yesterday.

  “About 70 percent of the report is based on surveys. Hence, it is unavoidable that the civil movements in recent years will affect the results to a certain extent,” council analyst Hsieh Chung-tsung (謝中琮) said in the news release.

  The report was based on 30 returned questionnaires, and the survey was conducted from January through the middle of June, Hsieh said. To prevent the report from being distorted by short-term events, the forum ranks every nation based on weighted scores computed from surveys conducted this year and last year, Hsieh said.

  Survey respondents are chosen at random and are management officials in Taiwan working for foreign and domestic firms, Hsieh said.

  The report ranks 144 economies around the world based on 114 factors in 12 categories.

  Additional reporting by CNA
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