The continent that has been benefited the most through international trade is none other than Asia. The largest continent of the world in terms of population, Asia had opened its economical boundaries for international trade and since then, it has become the world’s largest exporter. Moreover, the quality of life in Asia has been improved to a significant extent through international trade. Most prominently, it has lifted nearly one billion people out of poverty since 1990. But, if the measures are not controlled properly, the Asian environment can suffer a decline in environmental conditions.
The infographic below shows the results of the Sustainable Trade Index (STI) 2020 and according to it, around 19 Asian economies have been in the index ranking list since 2016 among the sustainable categories including, social, economic and environmental.
The rankings show that currently Japan and South Korea are on a tie with an overall STI score of 75.1. The tie has never been observed in the STI ranking. The STI score is measured on the basis of three pillars including social, economic and environmental.
Among the social pillars rankings, Taiwan rests at the top with an incredible social score of 88 points followed closely by Japan and South Korea with 87.3 and 86.9 scores, respectively. Taiwan secured the first position for the second time, the country performed outstandingly in education attainment since nearly 93.6 percent of the country’s population is receiving tertiary education.
According to economic pillar rankings, Hong Kong is on the top with a 69.6 score with Singapore and China at the second and third place with scores of 68.7 and 64.9, respectively.
Lastly, the environmental rankings reveal that Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea were the only countries to score above 75 and the rest of the countries have a score below 55. With such scores, the environmental pillar is the one having the least average scores among the three pillars.
Infographic by: Visualcapitalist.com
