Taipei ranked 21st in a Global Financial Centers Index report published by the City of London on Thursday, up four notches from 25th place in a similar report issued in September.
Taipei was included in the survey last March for the first time with a ranking of 41.
The City of London Corp commissioned Z/Yen Group in March 2007 to compile the Global Financial Centers Index report, with updates every six months.
The report is based on extensive surveys of global finance professionals, with analysis and detailed discussion of major financial centers or cities’ competitive dynamics. A total of 1,690 banking and financial experts took part in the latest survey, with poll responses collected between July and December.
INCREASES
Seventy-one of the 75 financial centers assessed in the latest survey saw increases in their overall competitiveness indicators, while the ratings of the remaining four declined.
The figures indicate that the global financial service business has bottomed out of its year-long recession amid resumed market confidence, the report said.
The index is compiled in terms of several instrumental factors, including availability of professional workforce, business climate, market access, basic infrastructure, general competitiveness, capital availability and digitization.
New York tied with London at the top of the global rating for the first time, while Hong Kong and Singapore remained in third and fourth places, respectively.
However, the report said the total scores of the two centers have continued to rise, while the gap between London and New York has been narrowing steadily.
TOKYO UP
Tokyo moved up two places to fifth place, followed by Chicago (up two notches), Zurich (down one place), Shenzhen (down four places) and Sydney (up two places), Shanghai (down one place), Toronto (up one place), Frankfurt (up one place), Boston (up three places), Beijing (up eight places) and San Francisco (up three places).
Shenzhen ranked fifth when it was first included in the survey last September, but its ranking dropped to ninth this time to tie with Sydney.
Shanghai dropped from 10th to 11th, while Beijing moved up from 23rd to 15th to tie with San Francisco.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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