The World Bank has ranked Taiwan 33rd among 183 economies around the world in terms of ease of doing business in its latest annual survey released Nov. 4.
It marks the third straight year that Taiwan has moved up the rankings in the Doing Business Report, after climbing to 61st position in the 2009 survey and to 46th spot for 2010.
Christina Y. Liu, minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, said the strong improvement in Taiwan’s ranking is the result of the concerted efforts of every government ministry and agency.
However, noting that the World Bank report is used by many investors around the globe in determining where to make investments, Liu stressed that Taiwan should not rest on its laurels and ought to work to improve in areas in which it performed less than ideally on the survey.
Among the nine categories used by the World Bank to gauge the business environment in surveyed economies, Taiwan’s ranking improved the most in ease of “trading across borders,” jumping from 33rd to 17th, as well as in “paying taxes,” up five spots to 87th overall, and in “starting a business,” also advancing five positions to 24th.
The World Bank said Taiwan, by continuing to simplify registration procedures, was among the economies showing the most improvement in the ease of “starting a business” category, along with Brazil, Egypt and the Philippines.
Taiwan also showed the most improvement in the “paying taxes” category, along with Canada, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, by cutting its business income tax from 25 percent to 17 percent and by simplifying tax collection and calculation, according to the bank.
Taiwan remained at 90th in “enforcing contracts” and slipped two spots to 32nd in “registering property.” (SB)