Taiwan ranks 19th among the world’s 28 main economic entities in the Bribe Payers Index (BPI), making no progress since 2008, Transparency International’s Taiwan branch said yesterday.
In the last BPI that Transparency published in 2008, Taiwan was ranked 14th among 24 of the world’s wealthiest and economically dominant countries.
This year, the BPI ranked 28 nations. It is based on research involving 3,016 business executives from companies in 30 countries. They were asked about the likelihood of offering bribes to foreign governments or companies when doing business abroad, Transparency’s Taiwan branch said.
sharing
Scores range from 0 to 10. Taiwan obtained a score of 7.5, sharing 19th place with India and Turkey.
First place in this year’s BPI was shared by the Netherlands and Switzerland, which each had a score of 8.8. Belgium (8.7) occupied third place in the index, while Russia ranked 28th (6.1), behind China (6.5). China was 27th. Japan occupied fourth place, Singapore eighth, Hong Kong 15th and South Korea 13th place.
National Chiao Tung University law professor Carol Lin (林志潔) told a press conference that the BPI research shows Taiwan has to improve its anti-corruption efforts in both the government and private sectors.
Taiwan has to clarify government-business relations, such as enactments of regulations on political donations and revolving-door provisions, Lin said. She added that in some cases, enterprises are blackmailed by government officials asking for money in the form of political donations. In other cases, she said, companies offer bribes to government officials to cultivate political relations.
Chen Chun-ming (陳俊明), a professor of public policy and management at Shih Hsin University, said a country’s political and business environment could affect the willingness of foreign investors to enter the country.
Chen urged the government to crack down on corruption and help domestic companies adopt effective anti-bribery programs.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the
RSS