Taiwan Remains World's 5th in Investment Environment: BERI

Taipei, Jan. 14, 2009 (CENS)--Taiwan's overall investment environment rating dropped one point to 72, remaining the world's No. 5, according to the report released by U.S.-based Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI).

BERI evaluates three times yearly in April, August and December the world's 50 major economies to rank them based on operations risk, political risk, and remittance risk. In December of 2008 Taiwan was ranked No. 2 in Asia in overall investment environment, ahead of Japan and next only to Singapore, although it was the world's No. 5.

BERI believed that Taiwan's current promotion of 12 construction projects plus its improving relationship with China make it a suitable place for investment.

In the same evaluation, Taiwan is ranked the world's No. 3 and Asia's No. 2 in operations risk. In remittance risk, it is fifth globally and third in Asia, behind Japan and Singapore. As for political risk, Taiwan's global rank dropped by two notches to 11 due to social unrest resulting from increasing conflict between the ruling Kuomintang party and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, caused by events as the arrest of the former President Chen Shui-bian for corruption, the visit to Taiwan by Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, China's top authority handling affairs with Taiwan.