Looking for a new site for Asia-Pacific regional headquarters? Your new office could be in Taiwan.
Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI)
has ranked Switzerland, followed by Singapore and then Taiwan top for
the "Profit Opportunity Recommendation" metric out of 50 countries and
territories in its third "Report on the Evaluation of Environmental Risks of Investment" for 2013, issued in December 2013.
Taiwan ranks second in the world after Singapore for operations
risk. BERI noted that although the island's economic growth momentum is
being held back by weak private consumer demand, warming exports are
expected to stimulate economic recovery in 2014.
The organisation
predicted that Taiwan's financial sector will maintain growth momentum
in 2014 and 2015, with most banks enjoying a healthy structure and
stable profits.
The
report gave Taiwan a continued recommendation to invest. BERI pointed
out that the island is continuing to strengthen its external economic
and trade relations, especially through the promotion of free trade
agreements, and relations with mainland China are expected to remain
friendly over the next five years.
For
political risk, Taiwan is tenth-lowest in the world and second-lowest
in Asia, behind only Singapore. In the "Remittance and Repatriation
Factor" index on the other hand, Taiwan ranks top in the world.
In
its report, BERI pointed out that Taiwan has a healthy trade and
current account surplus; its trade surplus totaled US$28.24 billion in
the first 10 months of 2013 and its current account surplus for the
whole year was projected to reach US$55.78 billion, exceeding the
US$48.88 recorded in 2012.
