Taiwan ranked 30th in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for last year, advancing five notches from 35th in the index’s 2014 edition.
Taiwan shared the position with Poland with a score of 62 points — 1 point higher than last year.
Last year’s index, released on Wednesday, covers perceptions of public sector corruption in 168 nations, with Denmark taking the top spot for the second year running and North Korea and Somalia the worst performers.
North Korea and Somalia each scored just 8 points on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 points (perceived to be very clean). Following Denmark, which scored 91 points, were Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada, while Germany, Luxembourg and the UK shared 10th place.
The US rose one notch to 16th with a score of 76 points, its best performance ever.
Hong Kong and Japan shared the 18th position, making them the second-best performers in Asia.
Brazil posted the biggest decline, falling 5 points and dropping seven positions to 76th. The unfolding Petrobras scandal brought people into the streets last year and the start of the judicial process in this regard could help Brazil in its fight against corruption, Transparency International said in a statement.
The index is based on expert opinions about public sector corruption, the group said.
Nations’ scores can be helped by open government, where the public can hold leaders to account, while a poor score is a sign of prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that do not respond to citizens’ needs, it said.
Top performers share key characteristics — high levels of media freedom, public access to budget information, high levels of integrity among people in power, and judiciaries that do not differentiate between rich and poor, and are truly independent from other branches of government.
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