Taiwan dropped two spots to No. 15 among 190 economies in the latest “Doing Business” rankings released on Wednesday, due to a corporate income tax increase last year.
Taiwan received a score of 80.90 points, down 0.1 from a year earlier, when it was No. 13, the annual report released by the World Bank said.
Higher rankings in the report generally indicate simpler regulations for businesses and stronger protection of property rights.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan ranked fourth, an improvement from fifth last year, for ease of doing business, behind Singapore at No. 2, Hong Kong at No. 3 and Malaysia at No. 12. China was No. 31.
The report focuses on 10 areas to assess a nation’s business environment: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; getting electricity; registering property; getting credit; protecting minority investors; trading across borders; paying taxes; enforcing contracts; and resolving insolvency.
Among the 10 criteria, Taiwan maintained the same ranking in two — enforcing contracts (11) and resolving insolvency (23) — while dropping in the other eight.
The lowest ranking Taiwan received was in the “getting credit” category, where it was 104th, with a score of 50 out of 100.
The indicator evaluates an economy’s strength of credit reporting systems, and the effectiveness of its collateral and bankruptcy laws in facilitating lending.
The National Development Council said that the drop in the rankings was largely due to the survey believing that an increased corporate tax has a negative effect on doing business.
It was referring to tax reforms that increased corporate income tax to 20 percent from 17 percent, while reducing individual income tax rates.
Regarding the low ranking in the “getting credit” category, the council said that some foreign companies have complained that Taiwan does not recognize the concept of a floating charge, making it harder for them to get loans.
Discussions on amending the Personal Property Secured Transactions Act (動產擔保交易法) to introduce a floating charge system are under way, but no final decision has been made, it said in a news release.
A floating charge is a security interest over a group of nonconstant assets that companies use to secure loans.
Typically, a loan might be secured by fixed assets such as property or equipment, but with a floating charge, the underlying assets are usually current assets or short-term assets that can change in value.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS