Taiwan moves up 2 spots to 11th in IMD global survey

2015/05/29

Taiwan is the 11th most competitive economy in the World Competitiveness Yearbook released May 27 by Lausanne-based International Institute for Management Development.

In the survey of 61 major economies, the nation moved up two spots from last year on the back of enhanced government, economic and business efficiencies. The only area to record a decline was infrastructure.

“The latest IMD rankings represent a fair assessment of government efforts in improving the country’s public sector efficiency and finances,” said Wu Ming-hui, director of the Department of Economic Development under the National Development Council.

According to the yearbook, Taiwan climbed three places to ninth in government efficiency as a result of strong performances in the subindexes of business legislation, public finance, and institutional and societal frameworks, with fiscal policy the same as last year at fourth.

The nation also advanced three spots to 11th in economic performance due to the robust local economy, which jumped 12 places to ninth. Increasing employment and international investment also contributed to this positive change.

In terms of business efficiency, the country climbed to 14th, up from 17th the year before—an improvement stemming from better attitudes and values, as well as labor market and management practices.

But the news was not all good. Taiwan dropped one spot to 18th in infrastructure mainly because of significant declines in basic and technological infrastructure.

The IMD said the nation’s competitive strengths include collected total tax revenues, economic resilience, high tech exports, higher education achievement and strong current account balance. It also cited higher education level, skilled workforce, cost competitiveness, reliable infrastructure and quality of corporate governance as the top five attractiveness factors of the local economy in that order.

Several challenges facing the country this year were highlighted in the survey. These include the need to implement further economic liberalization and industrial restructuring, as well as promote greater social cohesion and inclusion.

Overall, the U.S. remained the world’s most competitive economy, while Hong Kong and Singapore came second and third, respectively. Switzerland dropped two spots to No. 4 from last year, followed by Canada.

Launched in 1989, the yearbook assesses an economy’s competitiveness across more than 300 criteria and is based on hard statistical data and an Executive Opinion Survey.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=230885&ctNode=413)