Taiwan ranks 11th in global Doing Business report

2015/10/30

Taiwan placed 11th among 189 economies worldwide in the Doing Business 2016 survey released Oct. 28 by the World Bank.

Scoring 80.55 points out of a possible 100, the nation moved up eight places in the latest edition of the global survey. Singapore, New Zealand and Denmark were the top three in that order.

The ranking is Taiwan’s best ever performance in the report. The country has climbed 50 places over the past seven years, demonstrating that economic reforms enacted since 2008 are paying dividends, according to the National Development Council.

“These efforts aim to bring local business practices and legal frameworks in line with global standards, and also include measures to bolster infrastructure development and government efficiency,” an NDC official said.

Among the 10 categories used by the survey to assess an economy’s ease of doing business, Taiwan fared best in getting electricity, scoring 99.43 and trailing only South Korea. The report commended a streamlined procedure implemented by the local utility operator for obtaining electricity connections.

Taiwan performed strongly in the dealing with construction permits as well, moving up five spots from last year to sixth, with the survey highlighting the efficiency and quality of the local building permit system.

The nation also made impressive gains in other rankings, jumping from 93rd to 16th in enforcing contracts, from 30th to 25th in protecting minority investors and from 40th to 18th in registering property.

Despite its overall improvement, Taiwan fell in some categories in the latest report, dropping to 21st in resolving insolvency, 22nd in starting a business, 39th in paying taxes, 59th in getting credit and 65th in trading across borders.

“We will organize a cross-ministerial meeting in late November to address these areas of concern so that Taiwan can make the top 10 list in next year’s survey,” the official said.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=238323&ctNode=2194&mp=9)