The decline of the nation’s competitiveness ranking in the latest International Institute for Management Development (IMD) report shows the government needs to conduct a review to make improvements, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday.
Jiang told a Cabinet meeting that there was no need to panic over the nation’s competitiveness because of the report, but Cabinet members have to take it as a “warning” and actively address the problems it has highlighted.
The IMD lowered Taiwan’s global competitiveness ranking for this year by four notches to 11th, the nation’s worst performance since 2009, with across-the-board declines in all four subindices — economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.
The IMD Competitiveness Index comprises four subindices, which are divided into 20 pillars made up of 323 variables.
Jiang demanded that Cabinet agencies review each variable with humility.
A set of economic stimulus measures that began last year went in the right direction, but the question was whether the government can fully implement the measures, he said.
At a press conference following the Cabinet meeting, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) said that the report showed Taiwan’s global competitiveness ranking has declined, but that it did not mean Taiwan had become less competitive, rather that other countries had made more progress, Kuan said.
“Despite that, Taiwan’s competitiveness is still strong,” he said.
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