Taiwan maintained its top ranking among 17 Asian economies for social sector charitable giving in this year’s Doing Good Index, with events planned in Taipei tomorrow to showcase the results and honor the best-performing civic groups, the Ministry of the Interior said.
Taiwan and Singapore maintained their ranking of “doing well” in the index, which has been published by the Hong Kong-based Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS) every two years since 2018, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
It would hold an awards ceremony tomorrow to honor civic groups for their public charity work and the best-performing professional associations this year, including the Taiwan People’s Food Bank Association and the Taiwan Bar Association, it said.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
At a forum co-organized by the ministry to address topics involving charity work in Taiwan, Angel An-chi Chiang, the center’s director of research and advisory in Greater China, would present key findings drawn from a survey of 2,183 organizations and interviews with 140 experts used to compile a report for the index.
The awards ceremony and the forum would take place at the National Chengchi University conference center, the ministry said.
CAPS said the ranking is meant to show the readiness of social sectors to thrive in the economies of East, Southeast and South Asia, including Hong Kong.
Taiwan has a “relatively mature” social sector, thanks to its well-established regulatory framework and policies that encourage civic groups to drive private investment toward addressing pressing issues in society, it said in a report released in June.
Favorable tax and fiscal policies are highlighted as supporting Singapore’s top ranking, while Hong Kong and China are both “doing better,” the report said.
Cambodia, India and six other economies are “doing OK,” with Bangladesh listed as the only economy “not doing enough.”
There is growing interest in public affairs in local society, the ministry said, citing the 24,829 registered nationwide civic groups as of Sept. 30.
Taiwan has one nonprofit organization to population for every 376 people, while Singapore has one for every 2,369 people, China has one for every 1,596 people and Hong Kong has one for every 748 people, the report said.
The number of days to register a nonprofit organization, fiscal incentives for philanthropic giving and whether the social sector is perceived as trustworthy are some of the factors used to rank economies, it said.
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