BERI releases second business environment report for 2007

October 9, 2007

Taiwan has maintained its sixth ranking worldwide for its business environment, according to the latest report by the US-based business research group Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI). Taiwan ranked third among Asian countries for its business environment.

BERI, which evaluates the business environments of over 50 countries, released its second report of the year in August.

Maintaining its scores from BERI’s last report in April, Taiwan received a Profit Opportunity Recommendation (POR) Score of 72 points, and a 1A rating. The scores indicate that Taiwan is a low-risk, suitable country for investment.

In terms of global rank, Taiwan placed behind only Switzerland, Singapore, Netherlands, Japan, and Norway.

The BERI report also projected that Taiwan's overall business environment will improve, and predicted that Taiwan’s POR score will rise to 73 in one year and 74 in five years, while maintaining its sixth ranking.

The report also evaluates countries using three main indices: operations risk index, political risk factor, and remittance and repatriation factor.

On BERI’s operations risk index, Taiwan ranked third in the world and second in Asia (behind Switzerland and Singapore). The report predicted Taiwan would continue to improve on this index from 2007 to 2008, citing the passage of a recent budget for an economic construction package by the legislature, which is expected to create more employment opportunities.

Taiwan ranked 15th globally and third in Asia on the political risk index, with its score and ranking remaining unchanged from the last report. Taiwan’s score is most likely reflects the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming legislative and presidential elections in Taiwan, said the report.

On the remittance and repatriation factor, Taiwan ranked fifth globally and third in Asia, and its ranking and scores remained unchanged from the last BERI report. BERI believes that Taiwan, with its surpluses in trade and international revenues, will become even stronger in this area.

(Central News Agency)

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