Taiwan’s investment ranking rose one position to No. 3, with major risk factors improving compared with the previous assessment in December last year, a report by US-based Business Environment Risk Intelligence SA (BERI) said.
Taiwan scored a higher profit opportunity recommendation of 62, up from 60 in December, tracking behind Norway and Switzerland among the 50 countries assessed by BERI. South Korea was also 62, matching Taiwan’s investment ranking and grade of 1C.
Taiwan is expected to retain the No. 3 position next year, with the score rising slightly to 63, it said.
Photo: AP
BERI issues three investment assessment reports every April, August and December. Three key indicators are used to gauge a country’s investment risk: operations risk, political risk, and a remittance and repatriation factor, or foreign exchange risk.
Taiwan advanced one position in its operations risk ranking to No. 2, next only to the US and better than all its Asian trade competitors, including South Korea at No. 5, China at No. 15 and Singapore at No. 18, the report showed.
Taiwan scored 65 in this category, up from 63 in December.
In operations risk, Taiwan improved in 11 sub-categories, including economic growth, contract execution, and labor cost and productivity, giving it a top 5 ranking.
Taiwan received an improved score of 42 in political risk, up from 38 in December, placing it at No. 24, the report showed.
Taiwan lagged behind its major Asian competitors in this category. Singapore ranked No. 3, while China and Japan ranked No. 5 and No. 7 respectively.
In foreign exchange risk, Taiwan placed No. 1, holding its score of 80 from December, given its excellent foreign exchange reserves, foreign debt and international reserve. South Korea placed at No. 7, Singapore and Japan tied at No. 8 and China placed at No. 12.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of