Singapore leads Asia in talent ranking

This also marks a significant improvement from its eighth position last year.

The Southeast Asian city-state has made progress across all three key factors of talent competitiveness in the ranking, according to the report published on Thursday by IMD, an independent academic institution based in Switzerland. Singapore retains its No.1 position in "readiness," rises from 31st to 22nd in "investment and development," and climbs from 14th to 5th in "appeal."

According to the IMD, the state of investment and development in home-grown talent is examined by tracing the size of public investment in education through an indicator of public expenditure. It also evaluates the quality of education using indicators like pupil-teacher ratios.

The ranking also evaluates an economy's ability to attract overseas talent through factors such as the cost of living and quality of life; and the degree of skills and competencies in the talent pool by considering labor force growth, the quality of available skills, the education system, and the experience and competencies of the existing pool of senior managers.

Singapore tops the ranking in labor force growth, the availability of skilled labor, as well as the availability of finance skills, and stands second for the availability of senior managers with significant international experience.

Singapore scores lowest in the cost of-living index (63rd) and the total public expenditure on education (65th). It ranks relatively low in pupil-teacher ratio in secondary education (36th), pupil-teacher ratio in primary education (34th), the level of exposure to particle pollution (28th), and female labor force (20th).

People take photos at Merlion Park in Singapore, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo by AP

Hong Kong is the only other Asian economy to make the Europeans-dominated top 10, ranking 9th, up from 16th last year.

In Southeast Asia, Malaysia holds its 33rd position from last year, Indonesia rises to 46th from 47th, Thailand drops two places to 47th, and the Philippines falls three places to 63rd. Vietnam is not ranked.

Switzerland remains at the top of the list, while Luxembourg takes third place, down one spot from last year, followed by Sweden, which has risen six ranks.

The 2024 IMD World Talent Ranking report highlights the need for policymakers to streamline regulations to mitigate the potential exclusion caused by the widespread adoption of AI.

The report warns that AI could threaten the attractiveness of high-income economies to talent.

Arturo Bris, Professor of Finance and Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, which produces the ranking, said: "Instead of debating AI's ability to do certain tasks as well as humans, our focus should be on understanding and learning AI and Web3 technologies, which should take precedence in our education systems.

"Whilst it is not yet clear whether AI will make countries more talent competitive, the data does show that AI is going to impact inclusion and discrimination, because of the difference in access that employees have to it."

In countries like Singapore (2nd), the U.K. (27th), Canada (19th), Japan (43rd), and Thailand (47th), senior executives reported AI as being most visible in the workplace through its ability to replace human labor.