The nation’s global competitiveness has climbed two notches to 13th place this year, thanks to a top ranking in economic stability as authorities effectively kept inflation and government debt at bay, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report released yesterday.
The improvement came after the Geneva, Switzerland-based organization adopted a new methodology to better capture an emerging set of drivers on productivity and growth in the era of the “fourth industrial revolution.”
Taiwan was the fourth-best performer in the Asia-Pacific region after Singapore (second), Japan (fifth) and Hong Kong (seventh), but ahead of Australia (14th), South Korea (15th), New Zealand (18th) and China (28th).
The WEF measured 140 economies using 98 indicators grouped under 12 major groups.
The US earned top spot on its market size, stability and innovation ecosystem — including idea generation, entrepreneurial culture, openness and agility.
Taiwan won the top spot in macroeconomic stability with a 10-year GDP average of 2.6 percent, supported by benign inflation and low government debt.
East Asia and Pacific economies including Taiwan were the fastest-growing in the world and drove about one-third of global growth last year, primarily due to China’s contribution, the WEF report said.
The region’s developing economies grew 6.6 percent, owing to a favorable global economic outlook that encouraged a rise in exports, it said.
Most boast world-class physical and digital infrastructure and connectivity, macroeconomic stability, strong human capital and well-developed financial systems, although performance on the innovation ecosystem is uneven, it said.
Taiwan was fourth in innovation capability with room for improvement in multi-stakeholder collaboration and scientific publications, it said. Meanwhile, its research and development expenditure has stagnated against GDP.
“The region’s innovation hubs — Japan, [South] Korea, and Taiwan — could improve on the so-called ‘softer’ drivers of innovation to attain the level of ‘super innovators’ such as Germany, the US and Switzerland,” it said.
The nation’s infrastructure score declined from last year, as the indices on the reliability of water supply, quality of roads and airport connectivity fell, it said.
Taiwan achieved seventh place in financial system performance, thanks to the world’s lowest non-performing loans and the highest insurance premiums against GDP, the report found.
The WEF’s findings lent support to the government’s New Southbound Policy as South Asia remains the region with the lowest trade penetration in the world, with imports and exports of both services and merchandise amounting to 39 percent of regional GDP last year.
The report also called for openness in global trade, saying liberalization is good for competitiveness and not necessarily bad for inclusion.
“International trade helps drive down wages and employment in the manufacturing sectors most exposed to foreign competition, but protectionist policies to curb income inequalities would be ineffective and counterproductive,” it said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS