Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Taiwan grabbed 2nd place among 189 economies worldwide for providing electricity to users in an efficient manner, winning the title in the category of "Getting Electricity" in the Doing Business 2016 rankings released by the World Bank.
The rankings are decided based on the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building.
The World Bank highlighted in the report that Taiwan has simplified the procedure for obtaining excavation permits from the authorities, which has reduced the time required for getting an electricity connection.
Taiwan trailed behind only South Korea in the "getting electricity" category.
Taipower, Taiwan's main electricity provider, however, pointed out that the country actually surpassed South Korea in some areas. For example, the cable distribution in South Korea's capital city Seoul reaches only to underground 1st level while in Taipei city, it goes as deep as the 4th level, which it says shows that the company provides electricity efficiently.
It's notable that Taiwan got a full score of 8 in the newly added reliability of supply and transparency of tariff index, the same score as Germany, Singapore and South Korea.
It shows that Taipower has done an outstanding job in dealing with power outages, reducing electricity costs and providing electricity pricing information, the company said.
The annual Doing Business report considers 10 areas to derive an overall score for each country in the rankings, and higher rankings indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protection of property rights.
The 10 areas are starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
In the overall doing business ranking, Taiwan ranked 11th place, up eight notches from a year earlier.
(By Lin Meng-ju and Lee Mei-yu)
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