Taiwan ranked the second-best investment destination in Asia and the fifth-best in the world, behind only Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands and Norway, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday, citing a US-based research institute’s report.
The latest report compiled by Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) offered Taiwan a “1B” rating among the 50 countries surveyed, classifying Taiwan as a favorable investment environment with a reduced military threat from China, MOEA said in a statement.
BERI conducts its surveys on the investment climates and competitiveness of the world’s 50 major economies in April, August and December every year.
In the previous report, the US institute rated Taiwan as the sixth-best in the world with the highest-level “1A” rating, and referred to Taiwan as a low-risk country for investment.
The MOEA didn’t offer an explanation for the rating change, however. It only said Taiwan tied with Japan as the second-best in Asia and fifth-best in the world, following Singapore but far ahead of China (ranking 14th in the world), Malaysia (18th), South Korea (22nd), Thailand (29th), India (32nd), the Philippines (38th) and Vietnam (40th).
BERI uses three sub-indices for its regular evaluation of risks.
The latest report showed Taiwan moved two notches in the political risk sub-index to rank the second-lowest in Asia following Singapore and the ninth-lowest worldwide.
BERI said the control of both the Presidential Office and the legislature by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the improved relationship across the Taiwan Strait helped lower Taiwan’s political risk.
As for operations risk, Taiwan retained the third-lowest rank in the world after Switzerland and Singapore and the second-lowest in Asia.
The nation also maintained its remittance and repatriation risk at the third-lowest in Asia after Japan and Singapore, and fifth-lowest in the world, the report said.
Looking ahead, BERI said Taiwan’s investment environment would continue improving and rank the sixth-best in the world next year and in 2013.
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