Singapore has dropped out of the top 10 spots in IMD Business Schools World Talent Report. Singapore’s economic rival Hong Kong on the other hand leapt 2 spots to be among the top 10. Hong Kong was in the 12th spot in the 2015 ranking of the renowned Swiss Business School’s report
All Nordic countries (except Iceland) made it to the top 10 spots. Iceland which’s economy toppled in 2008 came in just behind Singapore at number 16 – while Switzerland topped the charts.
IMD’s ranking considered three factors – investment and development, appeal, and readiness – for its 2016 report. Singapore topped the charts in “readiness” category. The report said that Singapore’s current “availability of skills and competencies in the talent pool” is the best.
Despite that, Singapore took the hardest knock in this year’s chart of the most talent competitive countries.
Singapore’s lack of investment in developing home-grown talent is one main reason why it fell in the overall ranking, the report said. It ranked at only 38 in this sub-category.
Professor Arturo Bris, the director of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre, said that Singapore remains among the “very best attractors of talent from abroad”, and that it is able to improve its “competitiveness as a result of the knowledge and experience this foreign talent brings”.
He however added that this was not enough to compensate for the “lack of development of local talent, particularly with regard to the paucity of public-sector investment in education.”
Professor Bris highlighted high cost of living, declining spending on education and high pupil-teacher ratio in schools, as some areas of concern which contributed to its overall decline in ranking.
Former chief economist of GIC, Mr Yeoh Lam Keong commenting on the IMD’s Report said that it is sad and ironic that while the people are Singapore’s single most important resource, “it continues to stinge on educational spending relative to our key OECD knowledge economy competitors.”
“The relatively low teacher pupil ratio has been criticized for over a decade with little bold policy response,” he said.
Adding: “This IMD report indicates the telling and disturbing result. We simply cannot afford to continue like this.”
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Link: IMD Business Schools’ World Talent Report