I agree completely, and that’s why many companies take a pass here. Retail banking doesn’t amount to much profit anyway.
‘You need an attractive tax structure’
The tax structure isn’t so friendly once professionals hit a certain amount of income.
“business-friendly environment that accommodates foreign businesses and investors”
Most companies here don’t really even try to attract this group at all. They focus on overseas Taiwanese and local business and investors.
“predictable legal system and realistically, English accessibility.”
The legal system is anything but predicable, but it is getting better. Still lots of illegal rooftop additions, destruction of environment in so called protected areas, a review of the legal environment may scare investors off.
“The elephant in the room is that Taiwan isn’t recognized as a country by the countries that matter the most. This doesn’t affect trade so much but it does make becoming a real financial hub all but impossible.”
That’s a big issue yes.
“And then there’s the geopolitical risk…”
It’s why I keep thinking if I want to buy a house here. I mean I want to, but the risk of war is always there.
Hong Kong is now effected by political risk too so the only real alternative is Singapore and they seem happy to pick up the slack. Taiwan IMO is too far behind to be an alternative to HK, it was framework that should have been setup decades ago to be a competitor today