•Source： Taiwan Today
•By Rachel Chan

Taiwan was ranked the world’s 10th greatest society by two U.S. academics in an article published June 19 by business news website Forbes.

Panos Mourdoukoutas, professor and chair of the Economics Department at LIU Post, and Abraham Stefanidis, assistant professor at St. John’s University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business, made the claim based on 10 indicators measuring the effectiveness of societies in providing citizens economic opportunities and quality of life.

These include economic freedom, ease of doing business, environmental performance, globalization, global competitiveness, global creativity, global innovation, gross domestic product, and sustainable society and human development.

Taiwan earned a five-star rating, meaning it made the top 20 percent of all economies in five of the 10 indicators.

The island’s 10th spot finish is the third highest among Asian countries after Japan and South Korea, with the former placed 5th with eight stars and the latter 8th with seven stars.

An official with the ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs said Taiwan’s ranking is a positive result, but more analysis of the article is required before making further comment.

Liu Ruey-hua, professor of National Tsing Hua University’s Department of Economics, said Taiwan’s performance must be evaluated using identical indicators for five to 10 years so as to better reflect patterns of development.

Germany, the Netherlands and U.K. were assessed by the academics as the three “greatest” societies, with France fourth, Australia sixth, Canada seventh and the U.S. ninth.

According to the scholars, the reason some countries failed to make the list is the existence of authoritarian regimes at the time they began combining and mixing markets.

These governments could not provide for the development and enforcement of codified rules that allow each system to excel, they added.