According to the latest Global Competitiveness Report released by the World Economic Forum, Taiwan received an overall ranking of 13th this time, one notch down from last year. And the decline is mainly attributed to problems in the island's labor and financial markets. Economic officials said that while improvements need to be made in those areas, Taiwan's economy is still in good shape.

According to the Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, Taiwan's economy ranked 13th in the world in terms of competitiveness, among 139 countries covered in the report.

The ranking was one notch below Taiwan's position last year.

Although the ranking was behind Singapore, which ranked no.3 and Hong Kong at the 11th place, chairperson of Council for Economic Planning and Development Christina Liu says Taiwan maintained a higher spot than its economic rival South Korea.

Although Taiwan earned high marks in the areas of innovation, it dropped below the top 20 in three categories, such as financial market maturity, labor market efficiency and institutions.

The report indicates that Taiwan's policies about introducing foreign labor workers are not flexible and the government policy is not stable enough.

The procedure of opening up a company in Taiwan is more complicated in other countries.

These factors could affect Taiwan's global competitiveness.