Taiwan’s improving business climate saw it maintain 11th place among 190 countries in the Doing Business 2017 survey released Oct. 25 by Washington-based World Bank.
With an overall score of 81.09, up 0.01 of a point from the previous year, Taiwan ranked fifth in the Asia-Pacific behind New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. The top three global spots went to New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark in that order.
Among the 10 categories covered by the annual report, Taiwan fared best in getting electricity. With a score of 99.44 out of 100, it maintained second place globally behind South Korea.
The survey credited the country’s high ranking in this category to measures adopted in the past two years by state-run utility Taiwan Power Co. and municipalities eliminating site inspections and simplifying the procedure for obtaining excavation permits.
Taiwan also did well in dealing with construction permits, up three places to its best ranking of third in the world, and outperforming all other economies in the Asia Pacific region.
Enforcing contracts and registering properties are two other areas of impressive performances for Taiwan, up to 14th from 16th and 17th from 18th, respectively—the country’s best performances to date.
Additional areas of progress for Taiwan include paying taxes, up nine spots to 30th; starting a business, up three to 19th; and protecting minority investors, up three to 22nd.
But the country dropped back three places in getting credit to 62nd and trading across borders to 68th. It also went down from 21st to 22nd in resolving insolvency.
“Although the ranking remains the country’s best ever performance, there is still room for improvement when it comes to making it easier to do business in Taiwan,” the National Development Council said in a statement.
According to the NDC, it is working with relevant agencies and ministries on addressing areas for improvement highlighted by the survey. These include fast-tracking legislation of an act on debt clearance and amendments to the Company Act, as well as introducing new measures to enhance efficiency on obtaining credit and facilitating cross-border trade. (SFC-E)
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