TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - Taiwan climbed three spots to 28th in the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report recently issued by Transparency International.

The non-governmental organization tasked to combat global corruption announced their 2019 report on Thursday (Jan. 23) in which Taiwan received a score of 65 in a grading system where 0 and 100 stand for the most and least corrupt respectively. The report draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories.

The ten best-scoring countries are Denmark (87), New Zealand (87), Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85), Switzerland (85), Norway (84), the Netherlands (82), Germany (80), and Luxembourg (80).

The top ten performers in the Asia-Pacific region are New Zealand (87), Singapore (85), Australia (77), Hong Kong (76) and Japan (73), while low performers like Afghanistan (16), North Korea (17), and Cambodia (20) round out the bottom. Meanwhile, hurdles linger for China, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where dissenting voices are silenced and government affairs remain opaque.

The report did not detail the rationale for the jump in Taiwan's score.