ROC places 15th in global competitiveness

2015/10/02

Taiwan ranked 15th in the Global Competitiveness Report released Sept. 30 by Geneva-based World Economic Forum, registering mixed performances across the survey’s 12 components.

With a score of 5.28, up 0.03 from last year, the country improved in the annual assessment but inched down one place in its comparative ranking. Switzerland, Singapore and the U.S. took the top three places among 140 economies worldwide.

In terms of the Asia-Pacific, Taiwan is fourth behind Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, but ahead of South Korea at No. 26 and mainland China at No. 28.

According to the WEF, the nation’s performance has been stable over the past seven years, with continuous advances made in basic requirements and efficiency enhancers. Significant progress was achieved in financial market development,  labor market efficiency, macroeconomic environment and technological readiness.

Taiwan will need to sharpen global competitiveness by addressing such components as business sophistication, goods markets efficiency, higher education and training, innovation and market size, the WEF said.

In response, National Development Council Minister Duh Tyzz-jiun said a shortage of local engineering and scientific personnel is one of the major reasons for Taiwan’s ranking decline.

“The government is committed to addressing this issue by aggressively recruiting international students and industry professionals to bolster the country’s talent pool while complementing a rapidly aging workforce.”

Another area in which the WEF said Taiwan should lift its game is increasing the number of homegrown firms operating overseas and strengthening their marketing systems.

“We are working to help enterprises adopt a new business model of exporting fully integrated systems instead of traditional commodities,” Duh said. “In this way, Taiwan can become a provider of turnkey solutions for cutting-edge hardware, innovative services and software—a crucial component in our new Productivity 4.0 scheme.”

Duh said the scheme marks a new chapter in the government’s support for Taiwan businesses in developing upgraded value-added capabilities.

“We view this initiative as central to realizing an overall industrial upgrade through securing core technologies and creating a new range of products tailored to meet the needs of 21st century consumers.

“There is every reason to believe this will lay the foundations for Taiwan to remain abreast of intensifying global competition going forward.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=237193&ctNode=2194&mp=9)