Taiwan moved one notch down to seventh place, from sixth place last year, in this year’s global competitiveness rankings compiled by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management and Development (IMD).
Taiwan remained one of three Asian countries in the top 10 of 59 countries on the annual rankings list, according to the IMD report.
China’s ranking fell from 19th place to 23rd place, while South Korea remained unchanged in 22nd place. Japan’s ranking dropped from 26th place to 27th. The rankings of Brazil and India, two other BRICS countries, also dropped.
Hong Kong stayed in the No. 1 place, followed by the US, Switzerland and Singapore. Rounding out the top 10 were Sweden, Canada, Taiwan, Norway, Germany and Qatar, in that order.
Taiwan’s drop was attributed to its lackluster economic performance, one of four major indicators for the competitiveness evaluation. The other indicators are government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
IMD professor in strategic management and enterprise innovation Howard Yu (俞昊) said that in general, Taiwan has preserved its sharpness in government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
While international trade is a major factor affecting the economic performance of a country, Taiwan cannot control that factor, Yu said.
Taiwan’s ranking in economic performance fell from eighth place last year to 13th. Its performance on five sub-indicators — domestic economy, international trade, international investment, employment and prices — scored worse than last year.
Yu suggested that Taiwan strengthen its research and development capability as part of its efforts to sharpen its competitive edge. Taiwan should weigh what is important to the country, and what technology it should make an effort to develop, he said.
Director-general of the Council for Economic Planning and Development Hung Jui-bin (洪瑞彬) said yesterday the nation’s economic performance was easily impacted by “short-term volatility of global economic sentiment.”
Additional reporting by Amy Su
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