Taiwan moved up three places to 17th among 185 economies in the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, according to Washington-based think tank The Heritage Foundation Jan. 14.
With an economic freedom score of 73.9 out of 100, Taiwan was fifth among 42 economies in the Asia-Pacific region, trailing Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, the trio that topped the global list in that order, as well as New Zealand at No. 5.
The ranking is Taiwan’s best performance in the index to date. It was listed 35th in 2009, 27th in 2010, 25th in 2011, 18th in 2012 and 20th in 2013.
Over the 20-year history of the index, “Taiwan has recorded uninterrupted advancements in economic freedom since 2009 and continues to be ranked one of the world’s 20 freest economies,” the index said. “With emphasis on services and high-technology manufacturing, Taiwan’s economy is one of the richest in Asia,” the index added.
Of the 10 index benchmarks that gauge a country’s freedom, including property rights, fiscal, monetary, trade and financial freedoms, Taiwan did particularly well in business freedom, scoring 93.9 points and placing sixth in the world.
“Taiwan has maintained well-developed legal and commercial infrastructure in the private sector,” the index said, adding that the country made significant improvements in financial and investment freedoms, despite small declines in other indicators.
But the index highlighted a lack of flexibility in the local labor market, placing the country 126th in the world. Corruption was also singled out as a problem, but described as “significantly less pervasive than in the past.”
Established in 1995 and jointly published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, the index tracks economic freedom around the world on an annual basis. (SFC-JSM)
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