For the second consecutive year, the stress levels endured by business owners in Taiwan were the highest last year among business owners worldwide, according to the results of a survey released by London-based Grant Thornton International, a leading financial and business adviser to mid-corporate businesses.
The 2006 International Business Owners Survey polled more than 7,000 owners of medium-sized businesses from 30 countries in the fall of last year.
The survey shows that 57 percent of business owners around the world said they were more stressed than a year ago, compared with just 39 percent who said the same in a similar survey conducted the previous year.
In Taiwan, 90 percent of the respondents said their stress had increased over the past year, up from the 69 percent registered in the previous survey.
Others at the top of the stress list include China, the Philippines, Botswana, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa, in that order. Of all the business owners surveyed worldwide, only 6 percent said their stress had decreased over the past year.
Stress levels were lowest among business owners in Sweden, followed by Italy, Spain and France.
The report says that the stress levels of business owners are related to the number of holidays that they enjoy, noting that most business owners in Asia saw their stress levels increase last year mainly because they seldom took any days off or went on vacation.
For example, business owners in Taiwan only took eight days off on average last year, while those in Thailand took four days and those in Malaysia had 10 days, the survey said. Owners in European countries had an average of 22 days off.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
RSS