The International Institute for Management Development (IMD), a world’s leading business institute from Switzerland, revealed its renowned World Competitiveness Yearbook ranking 59 countries worldwide for the year 2011. This year Taiwan moves up 2 rank higher than the previous year to the 6th which is the best ranking in more than 10 years, higher than Canada and Australia. Hong Kong ranks better this year and together with the USA are champions of this year survey. For Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan ranks lower than Hong Kong and Singapore only. Taiwan’s economic rival, South Korea, ranks 22nd, China at 19th, and Japan at 26th.
Mr. Yang Yong Ming, the Government Spokesperson, stated that from the IMD’s survey it is clear that in this past few years Taiwan has improved its competitiveness and this shows that Taiwan’s economy and financial sector have well recovered from the financial Tsunami crisis and regained strengths again. Taiwan moves up 2 places and ranks at 6th this year. This survey takes into consideration more than 10 various aspects and Taiwan’s 6th position is a benchmark well accepted by circles of financial and economic academicians.
Taiwan’s Council for Economic Planning and Development estimates that the main contributor for Taiwan’s better rank position is the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). Mr. Hu Jong Ing, the Vice Chairman of the Council, stated that the ECFA between two sides of the Taiwan Strait helps stabilize the trade across the Taiwan Strait. Also at the same time, tax reductions and tax-free benefits have resulted in improved competitiveness for Taiwan’s export. Relationship between the mainland China and Taiwan has eased its tension and there are more Chinese tourists from the mainland coming to Taiwan. Last year there were approximately 1.5-1.6 million tourists from China mainland, accounted for 1 in 4 of all foreign tourists. This helps boost consumption rate in the private sector as well as create more job opportunities.
