At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Su Tseng-chang remarked on Taiwan's outstanding performance in a recent series of global ranking indexes. The premier praised the administrative team and said that, through the cooperative efforts of the government and the people, Taiwan has upheld institutions of democratic freedom, strengthened development of its democracy, and worked to create a fair and open environment for economics and trade. Despite the pandemic's impact and China's threats and pressure, Taiwan has displayed great tenacity, not only flourishing economically, but also receiving international recognition.
Premier Su noted that Taiwan obtained consecutive high marks on several global indexes published within the recent month. For example, in the 2021 Corruption Perception Index published January 25 by Transparency International, Taiwan placed No. 25 out of 180 countries. This is the highest rank reached by Taiwan in the 26 years since the index was first published in 1995. In addition, in the 2021 Democracy Index published last week by the U.K.-based Economist Intelligence Unit, only 21 countries achieved the category of "full democracy" among 167 countries surveyed. Taiwan in particular not only ranked as a full democracy for the second year in a row, but also rose globally from No. 11 to No. 8, ranking No. 1 in Asia, and climbing ahead of world powers such as Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.
The premier also pointed out that in the 2022 Index of Economic Freedom published Monday by The Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C. think tank, only seven countries qualified for the highest category of "free" out of 177 countries surveyed. One of the seven was Taiwan, which joined these "economically free countries" for the first time this year, ranking No. 6 globally and being the only one with a population over 20 million. The report also praised Taiwan as one of the very few countries in the world to have experienced continuous economic growth during the past five years.
Taiwan is strengthening its democratic development and devoting great efforts to creating an open and equitable environment for economics and trade, the premier continued. Despite the pandemic's impact and China's unrelenting threats and oppression, Taiwan still stands resilient. Not only has our economy thrived and produced a string of impressive feats, but our rankings in other important global indexes have risen to the best levels ever. Premier Su encouraged the administrative team to continue endeavoring to serve citizens, work for the country, and promote more policies beneficial to the nation and the people.