Taiwan ranked sixth in this year’s Index of Economic Freedom, the same as last year, but its overall score gained 1.5 points to 80.1, joining the “Free” index category for the first time, thanks to improvements in judicial effectiveness and labor freedom, the Heritage Foundation said in an annual survey released yesterday.
The US think tank grades 12 indicators in 184 economies — from property rights to financial freedom — grouped into four categories: rule of law; government integrity; judicial effectiveness; and regulatory efficiency and open market.
“Taiwan is one of the few countries in the world to have experienced continuous economic growth during the past five years. Economic freedom has increased significantly during that period as well,” the Washington-based foundation said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan ranked third among 39 nations in the Asia-Pacific region and its overall score was higher than the regional and global averages, the foundation said.
By comparison, South Korea was ranked 19th, Japan 35th and China 158th.
With strong scores across the board inflated by improved judicial effectiveness and labor freedom, Taiwan recorded a 3.6 point gain in economic freedom since 2017, it said.
The National Development Council said the government’s efforts to pursue economic freedom had paid off, adding that Taiwan now lags behind Luxembourg and New Zealand by just 0.5 points. Singapore leads the survey, followed by Switzerland and Ireland.
Taiwan’s judicial effectiveness scored 94.2, an increase of 21.3 points from a year earlier, the council said, adding that the nation gained 10 points in investment freedom to 70 and added 8.3 points to labor freedom at 68.7.
Taiwan’s currency freedom picked up 1.8 points to 86.1, but it lost points in business freedom, property rights, government integrity, government spending and fiscal health, the survey showed.
Additional improvements in business freedom and financial freedom would propel Taiwan’s economic freedom even higher, the foundation said.
Taiwan put up a flat showing in trade freedom and financial freedom from the previous year, it said.
Taiwan has six preferential trade agreements in force with the trade-weighted average tariff rate at 2 percent and 391 non-tariff measures in effect. Some agricultural imports face extra barriers, the survey found.
As of Dec. 1 last year, Taiwan had reported 848 deaths attributable to COVID-19 and the government’s response to the pandemic ranked 94th among nations in terms of its stringency, it said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday received representatives from the Heritage Foundation, including founder Edwin Feulner Jr and research fellow Anthony Kim, at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
Tsai outlined the government’s efforts and achievements in creating a more open economy and liberalized trade, and said she expects a closer Taiwan-US relationship in light of upcoming free-trade and digital economy talks between Taipei and Washington.
Feulner said that Taiwan is an important ally and a cornerstone of the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
COOPERATION: The president’s announcement about Taiwan aiming to increase its defense spending would help boost the nation’s deterrence, Mark Pottinger said Taiwan hopes to strengthen cooperation with the US in critical technologies and innovations to jointly build a safe and resilient “non-red supply chain,” President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks at a meeting with former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and retired US rear admiral Mark Montgomery at the Presidential Office in Taipei. “Increased cooperation between authoritarian countries is posing risks and challenges to the geopolitical landscape and regional security,” Lai said. “Only by bolstering our defense capabilities can we demonstrate effective deterrence and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and around the
RSS