IMD: Taiwan Advances to 11th Place in Global Competitiveness

May 26, 2005

In the most recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook issued by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), an organization based in Switzerland, Taiwan follows up last year's five-rung climb up the rankings ladder with a further advancement of one space. This puts Taiwan in 11th place among the 60 countries covered in the survey.

The IMD bases its ratings on four indexes: Business Efficiency, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, and Economic Performance. For Taiwan the weakest link is Government Efficiency; for the other three indexes, the trend is toward improvement. The most competitive index for the island is Corporate Efficiency, for which there was a nine-space improvement from 2000 to 2004 and further rise of one place this year to 6th in the world. This enhancement was due largely to improvements in Taiwan's financial environment, high-quality and relatively flexible labor force, and strong responsiveness to the globalized market.

Of the top 10 countries in the IMD ranking this year, seven are European and American. The top five: the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Iceland, and Canada. Among Asian countries Taiwan ranks third, after Hong Kong and Singapore.

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