Taiwan has made improvements in its perceived levels of corruption, a new report issued by Transparency International (TI) said on Tuesday.
Taiwan ranked 37th out of 180 countries surveyed in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2009 report, with a corruption perceptions index (CPI) rating of 5.6, two notches higher than the previous year, TI-Taiwan said.
TI-Taiwan released the report in Taipei on behalf of TI — a global coalition against corruption based in Berlin.
TI uses a 0-10 scoring system to compile the CPI rating. The higher the score, the lower the likelihood of corruption in a country’s government.
Taiwan ranked fourth in Asia, trailing Singapore (9.2), Hong Kong (8.2) and Japan (7.7), but was slightly better than South Korea, which ranked 43rd with a score of 5.5, TI-Taiwan said.
China ranked 79th with a score of 3.6 among the 180 countries listed, compared with India’s 84th place with a score of 3.4 and Russia’s 146th place with a score of 2.2.
Topping the list were New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland, in that order. The US ranked 19th with a score of 7.5.
TI-Taiwan chairman Hung Yung-tai (洪永泰) said Taiwan appears to have rebounded from 39th position last year — the worst TI corruption rating the country had ever received.
“Nevertheless, there is still plenty of room for improvement in efforts to build a clean government,” Hung said.
Taiwan’s image has improved thanks to the series of measures the government has taken over the past year, Ministry of Justice officials said.
“Efforts will continue to secure the country a clean administration,” the officials said.
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