By John Liu ,The China Post
January 23, 2015, 12:01 am TWN
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's overall trade competitiveness ranking fell from 12th to 14th place out of the 54 countries surveyed, based on a report released by the Importers and Exporters Association of Taipei (IEAT).
The drop in ranking is the result of Taiwan's failure to establish good trade relations with other nations, as well as local industries' losing edge in the global economic landscape, said Lu Hong-de (呂鴻德), the scholar leading the survey and a business professor at Chung Yuan Christian University.
According to the IEAT's report, Singapore, the United States and Canada make up the top three in trade competitiveness. Singapore has taken the top spot four times in the past five years. The U.S. is the only nation in the world to receive the same or improved ranking for five consecutive years, which is an indication of a booming American economy.
For Taiwan, the government's inability to move forward with cross-strait trade agreements and its slow progress in signing free trade agreements with other nations are the two main problems, Lu said.
On the domestic side, local industry consists of mostly information and communication technology businesses, which is a risk for the nation. In addition, a great deal of Taiwan's exports depend on mainland China.
Furthermore, Taiwanese companies offer low added value and the level of internationalization in Taiwan is not high enough, evidenced by the fact that the number of students going abroad to study are falling year after year, Lu said.
Exports to Reach US$600 Bil. in 2015: Government
Nevertheless, the government remains optimistic about Taiwan's export performance in 2015.
In his opening address at an event held by the IEAT yesterday, Vice Economics Minister Cho Shih-chao (卓士昭) said exports totaled US$588.1 billion in 2014, and Taiwan is aiming for US$600 billion in 2015.
Economics Minister John Deng (鄧振中) has said that Taiwan must produce quality products and carry out effective sales abroad in order to realize trade success.
Cho stressed that bilateral trade between Taiwan and New Zealand grew after the two countries inked a free-trade pact in July 2013. Statistics show that New Zealand's exports to Taiwan have surged 25 percent, while Taiwan's exports to New Zealand went up 14 percent.
Besides strengthening trade relations with developed western nations, Taiwan also wants to expand into emerging markets.
Taking notice of Indonesia and India's importance, Cho led a business delegation to Jakarta past November and another to New Delhi earlier this month in a bid to obtain a better understanding of the two governments' economic policies and to explore potential trade opportunities.
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