Taiwan ranked 25th in Forbes magazine’s latest list of the world’s “Best Countries for Business,” one spot higher than a year earlier and the third-best showing in Asia behind Hong Kong and Singapore.
Although the rankings were primarily based on last year, when Taiwan’s economy contracted by 1.9 percent and per capita GDP fell, substantial improvement in removing red tape helped elevate Taiwan one spot in the rankings, ahead of Japan (27th) and South Korea (30th).
“Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with gradually decreasing government guidance of investment and foreign trade,” the report said.
It noted, however, that Taiwan’s dependence on exports for 70 percent of its economic growth left it vulnerable to downturns in global demand, as was the case last year when it suffered a 20 percent year-on-year decline in exports.
The Forbes ranking also identified “Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation, low birth rate and rapidly aging population” as major long-term challenges.
Taiwan has so far been excluded from greater economic integration and its low birth rate raised the prospect of “future labor shortages, falling domestic demand and declining tax revenues,” the report said.
Taiwan’s best rating came in the area of innovation, where it was ranked eighth of the 128 economies surveyed, and was also highly regarded in the areas of monetary freedom (14th), technology (18th) and property rights (24th).
It was at its worst in investor protection, ranking 56th, and tax burden, ranking 63rd, but a drop in the corporate tax rate this year to 17 percent from the previous 25 percent is likely to dramatically improve Taiwan’s standing in that category.
In contrast, China fell precipitously from 63rd in 2008 to 90th last year, with substantial deterioration in the areas of market performance and investor protection.
Denmark topped the ranking for the third year, followed by Hong Kong, the report said.
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